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Mars-Like Soils in the Atacama Desert, Chile, and the Dry Limit of Microbial Life
Rafael Navarro-González,1,2*Fred A. Rainey,3Paola Molina,1Danielle R. Bagaley,3Becky J. Hollen,3José de la Rosa,1Alanna M. Small,3Richard C. Quinn,4,5Frank J. Grunthaner,6Luis Cáceres,7Benito Gomez-Silva,8Christopher P. McKay5
The Viking missions showed the martian soil to be lifeless anddepleted in organic material and indicated the presence of oneor more reactive oxidants. Here we report the presence of Mars-likesoils in the extreme arid region of the Atacama Desert. Samplesfrom this region had organic species only at trace levels andextremely low levels of culturable bacteria. Two samples fromthe extreme arid region were tested for DNA and none was recovered.Incubation experiments, patterned after the Viking labeled-releaseexperiment but with separate biological and nonbiological isomers,show active decomposition of organic species in these soilsby nonbiological processes.
1 Laboratorio de Química de Plasmas y Estudios Planetarios, Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Circuito Exterior, Ciudad Universitaria, Apartado Postal 70-543, Mexico City, 04510, Mexico. 2 Laboratoire Inter-Universitaire des Systèmes Atmosphériques, Unité Mixte de Recherche CNRS 7583, Universités Paris 12 et Paris 7, 61 Avenue du Général de Gaulle, F 94010 Créteil Cedex, France. 3 Department of Biological Sciences, 202 Life Sciences Building, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA. 4 SETI Institute, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035–1000, USA. 5 Space Science Division, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035–1000, USA. 6 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA. 7 Instituto del Desierto y Departamento de Ingeniería Química, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad de Antofagasta, Post Office Box 170, Antofagasta, Chile. 8 Instituto del Desierto y Unidad de Bioquímica, Departamento Biomédico, Facultad Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad de Antofagasta, Post Office Box 170, Antofagasta, Chile.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: navarro{at}nuclecu.unam.mx
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In Science Magazine
LETTERS
R. M. Maier, K. P. Drees, J. W. Neilson, D. A. Henderson, J. Quade, J. L. Betancourt;, Rafael Navarro-Gonzalez, Fred A. Rainey, and Christopher P. McKay (19 November 2004) Science306 (5700), 1289c.
[DOI: 10.1126/science.306.5700.1289c] |Full Text »|PDF »
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