Welcome to the NAI Newsletter! The Newsletter is a compendium of announcements, events, updates, and news items related to the NAI and its research. If you have news items or suggestions you can send them to the editor, Marco Boldt at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

NAI News

NAI Hosts Workshop Without Walls on Origins of Life

NAI collaborative tools were used to link people from around the globe
Using a suite of NAI collaborative tools, an NAI Workshop Without Walls on "Molecular Paleontology and Resurrection: Rewinding the Tape of Life" was held on November 8-10, 2010. Organized by scientists from the NAI teams at Georgia Institute of Technology and Montana State University, the workshop drew over 550 registrants from 31 US states and 30 other countries.

Twenty-nine talks were presented using 21 different video conferencing rooms, Adobe Connect and phone. The presentations were recorded and are available online.

For more information: http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/articles/nai-hosts-second-workshop-without-walls

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New NAI International Partner: Instituto de Astrobiología (Columbia)

The NAI has accepted an Affiliate Partnership proposal from the Instituto de Astrobiologia in Bogota, Colombia, led by Jorge Enrique Bueno Prieto of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. The goals of the Institute de Astrobiologia are:

• Contributing to scientific excellence, creativity and innovation for Astrobiology education and research in Latin America;


• Promoting interdisciplinarity in basic and engineering sciences; and


• Encouraging and inspiring children, young adults, and the general public in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) topics through Astrobiology.

The Instituto approaches these goals by:

• Promoting education and research in Astrobiology in schools and universities throughout Colombia;


• Developing research projects in Colombia’s scientific centers;


• Training teachers in the interdisciplinary methods of Astrobiology; and


• Strengthening Astrobiology in Latin America.

The Instituto has partnership agreements with:

• Universidad de Antioquia—Institute of Physics;


• The Colombian Center for Genomics and Bioinformatics of Extreme Environments; and


• Parque Explora, an interactive science center in Medellin

The NAI and the Instituto de Astrobiologia envision working together initially in three areas: (1) programs to engage and train students and young researchers in Astrobiology; (2) the development of Spanish-language astrobiology materials for use in the United States and in Latin America; and (3) microbiology and related research on organisms from extreme environments.

For more information on NAI's International Partner Program: http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/nai/international-partners/

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12/1 NAI Director's Seminar: David Gilichinsky, "Permafrost Astrobiology: Field Expedition to Terrestrial Analogues of Martian Habitats and their Inhabitants"

Date/Time: Wednesday, December 1, 2010 11:00AM Pacific
Presenter: David Gilichinsky (Russian Academy of Sciences)

Abstract:
The terrestrial cryosphere is the only widespread and rich depository of viable ancient organisms on Earth. The age of the isolates corresponds to the longevity of the frozen state of the embedding strata, with the oldest known dating back to the late Pliocene. If life ever existed on frozen extraterrestrial bodies such as Mars, traces might have been preserved and could be found at depth within Martian ice or permafrost. Permafrost on Earth and Mars vary in age, from a few million years on Earth to a few billion years on Mars. Such a difference in time scale would have a significant impact on the possibility of preserving life on Mars, which is why the longevity of life forms preserved within terrestrial permafrost can only be considered an approximate model for Mars.

I will focus on one of the terrestrial environments which are close to Mars in age – active volcanoes in permafrost areas. Here the age of volcanic deposits frozen after eruption is much younger than the age of surrounding permafrost. The same processes (past eruptions of Martian volcanoes) periodically burned through the frozen strata and formed the thermal and water oases. Simultaneously, products of eruptions (lava, rock debris, scoria, ash) rose from the depths to the surface and froze. The age of these frozen volcanic deposits is thus much younger than the age of the surrounding permafrost. Images taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on board the ESA Mars Express mission discovered young volcanoes 2-15 Myr old on Mars. In other words, the age of the youngest Martian volcanoes date back to the age of volcanoes on Earth.

Culture- and culture-independent methods show the presence of viable thermophilic and hyperthermophilic bacteria and their genes within pyroclastic frozen material on Earth. These bacteria and archeae have not been found in permafrost outside the areas of active volcanism. The presence of thermophilic communities in frozen ash and scoria raise questions about the origin of these microorganisms and their life style in such environments. The only way for thermophiles to get into frozen pyroclastic material is through deposition during eruption. In other words, catastrophic geological events may transport thermophiles from the depths to the surface and these thermophiles may survive at subzero temperatures.

Such terrestrial microbial communities might serve as a model for Mars, particularly for young Martian volcanoes that date back to ages close to those for terrestrial volcanoes. To explore these hypotheses we are characterizing different volcanic microbial communities on Earth within volcanic permafrost. One such area of active volcanism is the Klyuchevskaya Volcano Group (55°'N, 160°E) on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far-East, where mountainous permafrost predominates from the elevations ~1000 m asl and up. I will describe our studies of microorganisms isolated from this area.

For more information and participation instructions: http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/nai/seminars/detail/184

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12/6 NAI Director's Seminar: Elizaveta Bonch-Osmolovskaya, "Anaerobic Thermophilic Lithoautotrophs: Life Without Light and Oxygen"

Date/Time: Monday, December 6, 2010 11:00AM Pacific
Presenter: Elizaveta Bonch-Osmolovskaya (Russian Academy of Sciences)

Abstract:
Anaerobic thermophilic lithoautotrophic microorganisms inhabiting volcanic environments use inorganic energy substrates, electron acceptors and a carbon source of geothermal origin – performing, therefore, as primary producers in such ecosystems.

From the hot springs of Kamchatka Peninsula (Russia) strains of a new hyperthermophilic bacterium growing optimally at 80°C were isolated, and described as a novel genus and species Caldimicrobium rimae. This organism belongs to the Thermodesulfobacteria phylum and it can grow lithoautotrophically with molecular hydrogen reducing elemental sulfur or thiosulfate. Strains of C. rimae are also capable of oxidizing volatile fatty acids and alcohols – the fermentation products of organotrophic hyperthermophilic Archaea and Bacteria.

Another new isolate - Thermosulfurimonas dismutans, also representing a new genus in phylum Thermodesulfobacteria, was obtained from the deep-sea hydrothermal samples of Lau Basin, Pacific Ocean. This newly-identified organism is an obligate lithoatotroph growing at 92°C on a mineral medium by dismutation of sulfur compounds – elemental sulfur or thiosulfate, during which one molecule is oxidized to sulfate and another reduced to sulfide. The growth is obligately dependent on the presence of ferric oxide in the medium, which binds sulfide formed in the course of growth, maintaining its low concentration in the medium.

Carbon monoxide (CO) is a usual component of volcanic gases, both in terrestrial and submarine hot springs. The ability to grow anaerobically at 100% CO in the gas phase producing molecular hydrogen and CO2 was found to be widely spread among thermophilic prokaryotes – bacteria of phylum Firmicutes and members of the archaeal genus Thermococcales. However, if the concentration of CO in the gas phase was 5 to 45%, the range of microorganisms capable of hydrogenogenic CO-trophy became much wider. Among new organisms capable of this type of metabolism are hyperthermophilic bacteria of the Dyctioglomy phylum and the hyperthermophilic crenarchaeote Thermofilum lithoautotrophicus.

Formate can be formed abiotically in hydrothermal environments in the course of serpentinization reactions. We found that some representatives of the hyperthermophilic archaeal genus Thermococcus can grow on formate producing molecular hydrogen. The energy yield of this reaction was previously considered insufficient to support microbial growth.

These and other newly-identified thermophilic lithoautotrophic microorganisms able to use energy substrates, electron acceptors and a carbon source of geothermal origin can act as the base of a microbial food web that is not dependent on either solar energy, or of the modern biosphere. Such communities could be regarded as modern analogues of early Earth or extraterrestrial ecosystems.

For more information and participation instructions: http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/nai/seminars/detail/186