Researchers Assume a Nearly Oxygen-Free Environment on Mars Where Some Life Forms Thrive

Scientists speculate how the almost oxygen-free environment of Mars could have lifeforms that resemble conditions in some places on earth. These conditions could be seen as blueprints for life to develop in salty, cold conditions under permafrost in the High Arctic of Lost Hammer Spring which is the same on the Red Planet.

Life Forms in Extreme Conditions

Looking in the most extreme condition for life to take hold, the study from McGill University discovered microbial life never seen before, and advanced genomic methods have studied their metabolism, reported Phys org.

One study published in The ISME Journal shows that these microbial clusters living in Canada's High Arctic are similar to Mars; they survive by consuming and breathing inorganic compounds that could be on the red planet.

It will be used as a basis by the European Space Agency to look for the same condition where the microbes were discovered in the High Arctic for the next ExoMarsMission.

Reference of Life on Mars

The location of Lost Hammer Spring is the chilliest and most salty terrestrial spring so far. The water on Mars goes through 600 meters of permafrost to the surface and at sub-zero temperatures with zero oxygen.

High salt concentration keeps the spring from freezing over, maintaining a habitat capable of sustaining life at a freezing temperature.

These conditions are similar to those observed in some regions of Mars, in which widespread salt deposits and potentially cold salt springs have been identified.

While earlier studies have found evidence of microbes in this type of Mars-like with an oxygen-free environment, this is one of the few studies to reveal lifeforms like live and active bacteria, cited News Founded.

A McGill University study led by Lyle Whyte of the Department of Natural Resource Sciences used cutting-edge genomic tools and single-cell microbiology techniques to isolate and classify a novel, and more importantly, active, microbial community in this one-of-a-kind spring. Finding the microbes and then patterning their DNA and mRNA was not simple.

Elisse Magnuson, a Ph.D. student in Whyte's lab and also the first author of the study, gave her opinions that reflected the study, noted My Droll. She explained that a couple of years of analyzing the sediment was done before discovering the active microbial communities.

Adding the salty environment would disrupt the sequencing and extraction of the microorganisms. Finding these clusters of organic life is very significant.

They could sequence the DNA from the salty spring that permitted the reconstruction of the genomes of about 110 organisms seen for the first time.

The DNA collected enabled the team to ascertain how such creatures survive and thrive in this one-of-a-kind extreme climate. It represented a blueprint for promising life forms in similar environments.

This group could recognize active genes in the genomes and thus classify some very strange microbes vigorously metabolizing in the extreme spring surroundings utilizing mRNA sequencing.

Lastly, these microbes were about to survive without organic material and oxygen to live, remarked Whyte. They instead eat and breathe methane, sulfides, sulfate, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide that exists on Mars that could support life.

The salty, sub-zero, and oxygen-free environment in the High Arctic could exist on the red planet giving rise to lifeforms like microbes in the planet's permafrost.