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Life, Volume 10, Issue 1 (January 2020) – 6 articles

Cover Story (view full-size image): Terrestrial hot springs have emerged as strong contenders for sites that could have facilitated the origin of life. Cycling between wet and dry conditions is a key feature of these systems, which can produce both structural and chemical complexity within protocellular material. Silica precipitation is a common phenomenon in terrestrial hot springs and is closely associated with life in modern systems. Not only does silica preserve evidence of hot spring life, it also can help it survive during life through UV protection, a factor which would be especially relevant on the early Earth. View this paper.

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16 pages, 2368 KiB

Open AccessConcept Paper

Polyesters as a Model System for Building Primitive Biologies from Non-Biological Prebiotic Chemistry

by Kuhan Chandru, Irena Mamajanov, H. James Cleaves II and Tony Z. Jia

Life 2020, 10(1), 6; https://doi.org/10.3390/life10010006 - 19 Jan 2020

Cited by 27 | Viewed by 7597

Abstract

A variety of organic chemicals were likely available on prebiotic Earth. These derived from diverse processes including atmospheric and geochemical synthesis and extraterrestrial input, and were delivered to environments including oceans, lakes, and subaerial hot springs. Prebiotic chemistry generates both molecules used by modern organisms, such as proteinaceous amino acids, as well as many molecule types not used in biochemistry. As prebiotic chemical diversity was likely high, and the core of biochemistry uses a rather small set of common building blocks, the majority of prebiotically available organic compounds may not have been those used in modern biochemistry. Chemical evolution was unlikely to have been able to discriminate which molecules would eventually be used in biology, and instead, interactions among compounds were governed simply by abundance and chemical reactivity. Previous work has shown that likely prebiotically available α-hydroxy acids can combinatorially polymerize into polyesters that self-assemble to create new phases which are able to compartmentalize other molecule types. The unexpectedly rich complexity of hydroxy acid chemistry and the likely enormous structural diversity of prebiotic organic chemistry suggests chemical evolution could have been heavily influenced by molecules not used in contemporary biochemistry, and that there is a considerable amount of prebiotic chemistry which remains unexplored. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Themed Issue Commemorating Prof. David Deamer's 80th Birthday)

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8 pages, 593 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Life in The Context of Order and Complexity

by Christian Mayer

Life 2020, 10(1), 5; https://doi.org/10.3390/life10010005 - 18 Jan 2020

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 10388

Abstract

It is generally accepted that life requires structural complexity. However, a chaotic mixture of organic compounds like the one formed by extensive reaction sequences over time may be extremely complex, but could just represent a static asphalt-like dead end situation. Likewise, it is accepted that life requires a certain degree of structural order. However, even extremely ordered structures like mineral crystals show no tendency to be alive. So neither complexity nor order alone can characterize a living organism. In order to come close to life, and in order for life to develop to higher organisms, both conditions have to be fulfilled and advanced simultaneously. Only a combination of the two requirements, complexity and structural order, can mark the difference between living and dead matter. It is essential for the development of prebiotic chemistry into life and characterizes the course and the result of Darwinian evolution. For this reason, it is worthwhile to define complexity and order as an essential pair of characteristics of life and to use them as fundamental parameters to evaluate early steps in prebiotic development. A combination of high order and high complexity also represents a universal type of biosignature which could be used to identify unknown forms of life or remnants thereof. Full article

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3 pages, 216 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Acknowledgement to Reviewers of Life in 2019

by Life Editorial Office

Life 2020, 10(1), 4; https://doi.org/10.3390/life10010004 - 17 Jan 2020

Viewed by 1986

Abstract

Full article

9 pages, 6085 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Silica Precipitation in a Wet–Dry Cycling Hot Spring Simulation Chamber

by Andrew Gangidine, Jeff R. Havig, Jeffrey S. Hannon and Andrew D. Czaja

Life 2020, 10(1), 3; https://doi.org/10.3390/life10010003 - 14 Jan 2020

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 4191

Abstract

Terrestrial hot springs have emerged as strong contenders for sites that could have facilitated the origin of life. Cycling between wet and dry conditions is a key feature of these systems, which can produce both structural and chemical complexity within protocellular material. Silica precipitation is a common phenomenon in terrestrial hot springs and is closely associated with life in modern systems. Not only does silica preserve evidence of hot spring life, it also can help it survive during life through UV protection, a factor which would be especially relevant on the early Earth. Determining which physical and chemical components of hot springs are the result of life vs. non-life in modern hot spring systems is a difficult task, however, since life is so prevalent in these environments. Using a model hot spring simulation chamber, we demonstrate a simple yet effective way to precipitate silica with or without the presence of life. This system may be valuable in further investigating the plausible role of silica precipitation in ancient terrestrial hot spring environments even before life arose, as well as its potential role in providing protection from the high surface UV conditions which may have been present on early Earth. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Themed Issue Commemorating Prof. David Deamer's 80th Birthday)

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22 pages, 1999 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Ultradeep Microbial Communities at 4.4 km within Crystalline Bedrock: Implications for Habitability in a Planetary Context

by Lotta Purkamo, Riikka Kietäväinen, Maija Nuppunen-Puputti, Malin Bomberg and Claire Cousins

Life 2020, 10(1), 2; https://doi.org/10.3390/life10010002 - 04 Jan 2020

Cited by 31 | Viewed by 7068

Abstract

The deep bedrock surroundings are an analog for extraterrestrial habitats for life. In this study, we investigated microbial life within anoxic ultradeep boreholes in Precambrian bedrock, including the adaptation to environmental conditions and lifestyle of these organisms. Samples were collected from Pyhäsalmi mine environment in central Finland and from geothermal drilling wells in Otaniemi, Espoo, in southern Finland. Microbial communities inhabiting the up to 4.4 km deep bedrock were characterized with phylogenetic marker gene (16S rRNA genes and fungal ITS region) amplicon and DNA and cDNA metagenomic sequencing. Functional marker genes (dsrB, mcrA, narG) were quantified with qPCR. Results showed that although crystalline bedrock provides very limited substrates for life, the microbial communities are diverse. Gammaproteobacterial phylotypes were most dominant in both studied sites. Alkanindiges -affiliating OTU was dominating in Pyhäsalmi fluids, while different depths of Otaniemi samples were dominated by Pseudomonas. One of the most common OTUs detected from Otaniemi could only be classified to phylum level, highlighting the uncharacterized nature of the deep biosphere in bedrock. Chemoheterotrophy, fermentation and nitrogen cycling are potentially significant metabolisms in these ultradeep environments. To conclude, this study provides information on microbial ecology of low biomass, carbon-depleted and energy-deprived deep subsurface environment. This information is useful in the prospect of finding life in other planetary bodies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Planetary Exploration of Habitable Environments)

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14 pages, 4032 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Nanosatellites for Biology in Space: In Situ Measurement of Bacillus subtilis Spore Germination and Growth after 6 Months in Low Earth Orbit on the O/OREOS Mission

by Wayne L. Nicholson and Antonio J. Ricco

Life 2020, 10(1), 1; https://doi.org/10.3390/life10010001 - 29 Dec 2019

Cited by 17 | Viewed by 4806

Abstract

We report here complete 6-month results from the orbiting Space Environment Survivability of Living Organisms (SESLO) experiment. The world’s first and only long-duration live-biology cubesat experiment, SESLO was executed by one of two 10-cm cube-format payloads aboard the 5.5-kg O/OREOS (Organism/Organic Exposure to Orbital Stresses) free-flying nanosatellite, which launched to a 72°-inclination, 650-km Earth orbit in 2010. The SESLO experiment measured the long-term survival, germination, metabolic, and growth responses of Bacillus subtilis spores exposed to microgravity and ionizing radiation including heavy-ion bombardment. A pair of radiation dosimeters (RadFETs, i.e., radiation-sensitive field-effect transistors) within the SESLO payload provided an in-situ dose rate estimate of 6–7.6 mGy/day throughout the mission. Microwells containing samples of dried spores of a wild-type B. subtilis strain and a radiation-sensitive mutant deficient in Non-Homologoous End Joining (NHEJ) were rehydrated after 14, 91, and 181 days in space with nutrient medium containing with the redox dye alamarBlue (aB), which changes color upon reaction with cellular metabolites. Three-color transmitted light intensity measurements of all microwells were telemetered to Earth within days of each 24-hour growth experiment. At 14 and 91 days, spaceflight samples germinated, grew, and metabolized significantly more slowly than matching ground-control samples, as measured both by aB reduction and optical density changes; these rate differences notwithstanding, the final optical density attained was the same in both flight and ground samples. After 181 days in space, spore germination and growth appeared hindered and abnormal. We attribute the differences not to an effect of the space environment per se, as both spaceflight and ground-control samples exhibited the same behavior, but to a pair of ~15-day thermal excursions, after the 91-day measurement and before the 181-day experiment, that peaked above 46 °C in the SESLO payload. Because the payload hardware operated nominally at 181 days, the growth issues point to heat damage, most likely to component(s) of the growth medium (RPMI 1640 containing aB) or to biocompatibility issues caused by heat-accelerated outgassing or leaching of harmful compounds from components of the SESLO hardware and electronics. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Space Experiments for Astrobiology)

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