First observations of high-temperature submarine hydrothermal vents and massive anhydrite deposits off the north coast of Iceland

High-temperature (250°C) hydrothermal vents and massive anhydrite deposits have been found in a shallow water, sediment-filled graben near 66°36′N in the Tjornes Fracture Zone north of Iceland. The site is located about 30 km offshore, near the small island of Grimsey. The main vent field occurs at a depth of 400 m and consists of about 20 large-diameter (up to 10 m) mounds and 1–3 m chimneys and spires of anhydrite and talc. A north–south alignment of the mounds over a 1-km strike length of the valley floor suggests that their distribution is controlled by a buried fault. Widespread shimmering water and extensive white patches of anhydrite in the sediment between the mounds indicates that the entire 1-km2 area occupied by the vents is thermally active. A 2-man research submersible JAGO was used to map the area and to sample vent waters, gases, and chimneys. Actively boiling hydrothermal vents occur on most of the mounds, and extensive two-phase venting indicates that the field is underlain by a large boiling zone (200×300 m). The presence of boiling fluids in shallow aquifers beneath the deposits was confirmed by sediment coring. The highest-temperature pore fluids were encountered in talc- and anhydrite-rich sedimentary layers that occur up to 7 m below the mounds. Baked muds underlie the talc and anhydrite layers, and pyrite is common in stockwork-like fractures and veins in the hydrothermally altered sediments. However, massive sulfides (pyrite–marcasite crusts) were found in only one relict mound. Subseafloor boiling has likely affected the metal-carrying capacity of the hydrothermal fluids, and deposition of sulfides may be occurring at greater depth. Although the mounds and chimneys at Grimsey resemble other deposits at sedimented ridges (e.g. Middle Valley, Escanaba Trough, Guaymas Basin), the shallow water setting and extensive boiling of the hydrothermal fluids represent a distinctive new type of seafloor hydrothermal system

Time-lapse characterization of hydrothermal seawater and microbial interactions with basaltic tephra at Surtsey Volcano

A new International Continental Drilling Program (ICDP) project will drill through the 50-yearoldedifice of Surtsey Volcano, the youngest of the Vestmannaeyjar Islands along the south coast of Iceland, to perform interdisciplinary time-lapse investigations of hydrothermal and microbial interactions with basaltic tephra. The volcano, created in 1963–1967 by submarine and subaerial basaltic eruptions, was first drilled in 1979. In October 2014, a workshop funded by the ICDP convened 24 scientists from 10 countries for 3 and a half days on Heimaey Island to develop scientific objectives, site the drill holes, and organize logistical support. Representatives of the Surtsey Research Society and Environment Agency of Iceland also participated. Scientific themes focus on further determinations of the structure and eruptive processes of the type locality of Surtseyan volcanism, descriptions of changes in fluid geochemistry and microbial colonization of the subterrestrial deposits since drilling 35 years ago, and monitoring the evolution of hydrothermal and biological processes within the tephra deposits far into the future through the installation of a Surtsey subsurface observatory. The tephra deposits provide a geologic analog for developing specialty concretes with pyroclastic rock and evaluating their long-term performance under diverse hydrothermal conditions

Magnetism, FeS colloids, and Origins of Life

A number of features of living systems: reversible interactions and weak bonds underlying motor-dynamics; gel-sol transitions; cellular connected fractal organization; asymmetry in interactions and organization; quantum coherent phenomena; to name some, can have a natural accounting via $physical$ interactions, which we therefore seek to incorporate by expanding the horizons of `chemistry-only' approaches to the origins of life. It is suggested that the magnetic 'face' of the minerals from the inorganic world, recognized to have played a pivotal role in initiating Life, may throw light on some of these issues. A magnetic environment in the form of rocks in the Hadean Ocean could have enabled the accretion and therefore an ordered confinement of super-paramagnetic colloids within a structured phase. A moderate H-field can help magnetic nano-particles to not only overcome thermal fluctuations but also harness them. Such controlled dynamics brings in the possibility of accessing quantum effects, which together with frustrations in magnetic ordering and hysteresis (a natural mechanism for a primitive memory) could throw light on the birth of biological information which, as Abel argues, requires a combination of order and complexity. This scenario gains strength from observations of scale-free framboidal forms of the greigite mineral, with a magnetic basis of assembly. And greigite's metabolic potential plays a key role in the mound scenario of Russell and coworkers-an expansion of which is suggested for including magnetism.Comment: 42 pages, 5 figures, to be published in A.R. Memorial volume, Ed Krishnaswami Alladi, Springer 201

A Laboratory of Extremophiles: Iceland Coordination Action for Research Activities on Life in Extreme Environments (CAREX) Field Campaign

Existence of life in extreme environments has been known for a long time, and their habitants have been investigated by different scientific disciplines for decades. However, reports of multidisciplinary research are uncommon. In this paper, we report an interdisciplinary three-day field campaign conducted in the framework of the Coordination Action for Research Activities on Life in Extreme Environments (CAREX) FP7EU program, with participation of experts in the fields of life and earth sciences. In situ experiments and sampling were performed in a 20 m long hot springs system of different temperature (57 \ub0C to 100 \ub0C) and pH (2 to 4). Abiotic factors were measured to study their influence on the diversity. The CO2 and H2S concentration varied at different sampling locations in the system, but the SO2 remained the same. Four biofilms, mainly composed by four different algae and phototrophic protists, showed differences in photosynthetic activity. Varying temperature of the sampling location affects chlorophyll fluorescence, not only in the microbial mats, but plants (Juncus), indicating selective adaptation to the environmental conditions. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR), DNA microarray and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE)-based analysis in laboratory showed the presence of a diverse microbial population. Even a short duration (30 h) deployment of a micro colonizer in this hot spring system led to colonization of microorganisms based on ribosomal intergenic spacer (RISA) analysis. Polyphasic analysis of this hot spring system was possible due to the involvement of multidisciplinary approaches

MICROORGANISMS FROM MARS ANALOGUE ENVIRONMENTS IN EARTH - COULD THEY SURVIVE ON MARS?

Assessing the habitability of Mars and detecting life, if it was ever there, depends on knowledge of whether the combined environmental stresses experienced on Mars are compatible with life and whether a record of that life could ever be detected. Many combinations of Mars relevant stress factors, such as high radiation dose rates and high UV uences combined with high salt concentrations, and low water activity, have not been investigated. In particular, the response of anaerobic organisms to Mars-like stress factors and combinations thereof are not known. In the EC project MASE (Mars Analogues for Space Exploration) we address these limitations by characterising different Mars analogue environments on Earth, isolating microorganisms from these sites and exposing them to Mars relevant stress factors alone and in combination. We want to find out, if these bacteria respond in an additive or synergistic way and if they would be able to survive on Mars. So far, eight only distantly related microorganisms are under detailed investigation, e.g Yersinia sp., Halanaerobium sp., Acidiphilum sp. Desulfovibrio sp.. Unexpectedly, a Yersinia strain turned out to be quite resistant, especially against desicca- tion and oxidising compounds, whereas a Desulfovibrio sp. strain exhibit a relatively high radiation resistance. The future experiments aim at the identification of the underlying cellu- lar and molecular mechanisms and the comparison to other new isolates from Mars analogue environments on Earth in the MASE project

MEXEM – Mars Exposed Extremophile Mixture – a space experiment to investigate the capability of anaerobic organisms to survive on Mars

Assessing the habitability of Mars and detecting life, if it ever existed there, depends on knowledge of whether the combined environmental stresses experienced on Mars are compatible with life as we know it and whether a record of that life could ever be detected. So far, only few investigations were performed to understand the combined effect of different environmental stresses on survival and growth of anaerobic and extremophilic organisms. In the space experiment MEXEM (formerly known as MASE-in-SPACE) the hypothesis will be tested that selected terrestrial organisms, enrichment cultures and original samples from extreme Mars-analogue environments on Earth are able to withstand the Martian environ- mental stress factors due to their highly effective cellular and molecular adaptation and repair mechanisms. In addition, artificially fossilized and aged isolates from Mars-analogue environments on Earth will be examined and assessed with respect to their suitability for biosigna- ture identification. MEXEM samples will be (i) oxygen-depleted natural sediment samples, (ii) natural sediments spiked with selected, defined strains representative for the respective analogue site, (iii) individual (facultative) anaerobic / micro-aerophilic species including ciliates and viruses, (iv) defined mixtures of these biological entities, (v) isolated strains from samples collected inside the ISS and (vi) artificially fossilized isolates from the natural environments. Most of these samples and isolates were obtained from Mars-analogue envi- ronments on Earth in the frame of the EC funded project MASE (Grant Agreement 607297) and from the space experiment EXTREMOPHILES (PI C. Moissl-Eichinger). MEXEM will be flown outside on the ISS in the new exobiology facility ESA is building now. It offers the possibility to simulate of the martian environment, in particular the martian UV cl e, which cannot be done in the lab, but also martian atmosphere and pressure in LEO

Microbial Metabolism of Amino Acids—Biologically Induced Removal of Glycine and the Resulting Fingerprint as a Potential Biosignature

The identification of reliable biomarkers, such as amino acids, is key for the search of extraterrestrial life. A large number of microorganisms metabolize, synthesize, take up and excrete amino acids as part of the amino acid metabolism during aerobic and/or anaerobic respiration or in fermentation. In this work, we investigated whether the anaerobic microbial metabolism of amino acids could leave a secondary biosignature indicating biological activity in the environment around the cells. The observed fingerprints would reflect the physiological capabilities of the specific microbial community under investigation. The metabolic processing of an amino acid mixture by two distinct anaerobic microbial communities collected from Islinger Mühlbach (ISM) and Sippenauer Moor (SM), Germany was examined. The amino acid mixture contained L-alanine, β-alanine, L-aspartic acid, DL-proline, L-leucine, L-valine, glycine, L-phenylalanine and L-isoleucine. In parallel, an amino acid spiked medium without microorganisms was used as a control to determine abiotic changes over time. Liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS) was used to track amino acid changes over time. When comparing to the control samples that did not show significant changes of amino acids concentrations over time, we found that glycine was almost completely depleted from both microbial samples to less than 3% after the first two weeks- This results indicates a preferential use of this simple amino acid by these microbial communities. Although glycine degradation can be caused by abiotic processes, these results show that its preferential depletion in an environment would be consistent with the presence of life. We found changes in most other amino acids that varied between amino acids and communities, suggesting complex dynamics with no clear universal pattern that might be used as a signature of life. However, marked increases in amino acids, caused by cellular synthesis and release into the extracellular environment (e.g., alanine), were observed and could be considered a signature of metabolic activity. We conclude, that substantial anomalous enhancements of some amino acids against the expected abiotic background concentration may be an agnostic signature of the presence of biological processes

BIOMARKERS DETECTION IN MARS ANALOGUE SITES WITHIN MASE PROJECT

Life is a physico-chemical process by which tell-tale signals or traces are left on the environment. These signals are indicators of life and are known as biomarkers. Besides, the traces of some kinds of microorganisms can be well preserved, provided that they are rapidly mineralized and that the sediments in which they occur are rapidly cemented [1]. The search for these traces of life is one of the main objectives of Mars exploration [1] and to improve and optimize the search and detection of them forms part of MASE project targets. In MASE project (Mars Analogues for Space Exploration) we work to improve approaches and methods for biomarker detection in samples with low biomass from Mars analogue sites. A developed antibody multiarray competitive immunoassay (MACIA) for the simultaneous detection of compounds of a wide range of molecular sizes or whole spores and cells [2] [3] has revealed as suitable option to achieve this purpose

Mars Analogues for space exploration - from anaerobic field site to culture collection

Astrobiology seeks to understand the limits of life and to determine the physiology of organisms in order to be able to better assess the potential habitability of other worlds and improve our ability to assay them for the presence of life. To successfully achieve this we require representative microorganisms from environments on Earth that in physical and/or chemical conditions approximate to extraterrestrial environments. The most challenging of these environments with respect to the sample collection and follow on isolation and cultivation of microorganisms are anaerobic environments. Here we describe a systematic approach to this challenge and aim to provide a guideline for future fieldwork and sampling campaigns. We selected a number of anaerobic environments based on characteristics that make them analogous to past and present locations on Mars (Icelandic lakes, sulfidic springs, deep hypersaline environments, acidic iron-rich environments, and permafrost). We implemented a culturing approach to enrich organisms from these environments under anaerobic conditions using a defined medium that would allow for all organisms to be grown under identical culturing conditions m future physiological comparisons. We then isolated anaerobic microorganisms, carried out a study of their basic physiology and deposited these organisms in the DSMZ (Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen GmbH) culture collection to make them available to astrobiologists and microbiologists. This project represents the first attempt to implement a coordinated effort from the selection of extraterrestrial analog sites through to the isolation and the characterisation of organisms and their deposition within a culture collection

DNA Microarrays for Identifying Fishes

In many cases marine organisms and especially their diverse developmental stages are difficult to identify by morphological characters. DNA-based identification methods offer an analytically powerful addition or even an alternative. In this study, a DNA microarray has been developed to be able to investigate its potential as a tool for the identification of fish species from European seas based on mitochondrial 16S rDNA sequences. Eleven commercially important fish species were selected for a first prototype. Oligonucleotide probes were designed based on the 16S rDNA sequences obtained from 230 individuals of 27 fish species. In addition, more than 1200 sequences of 380 species served as sequence background against which the specificity of the probes was tested in silico. Single target hybridisations with Cy5-labelled, PCR-amplified 16S rDNA fragments from each of the 11 species on microarrays containing the complete set of probes confirmed their suitability. True-positive, fluorescence signals obtained were at least one order of magnitude stronger than false-positive cross-hybridisations. Single nontarget hybridisations resulted in cross-hybridisation signals at approximately 27% of the cases tested, but all of them were at least one order of magnitude lower than true-positive signals. This study demonstrates that the 16S rDNA gene is suitable for designing oligonucleotide probes, which can be used to differentiate 11 fish species. These data are a solid basis for the second step to create a “Fish Chip” for approximately 50 fish species relevant in marine environmental and fisheries research, as well as control of fisheries products