Preserved Filamentous Microbial Biosignatures in the Brick Flat Gossan, Iron Mountain, California

A variety of actively precipitating mineral environments preserve morphological evidence of microbial biosignatures. One such environment with preserved microbial biosignatures is the oxidized portion of a massive sulfide deposit, or gossan, such as that at Iron Mountain, California. This gossan may serve as a mineralogical analogue to some ancient martian environments due to the presence of oxidized iron and sulfate species, and minerals that only form in acidic aqueous conditions, in both environments. Evaluating the potential biogenicity of cryptic textures in such martian gossans requires an understanding of how microbial textures form biosignatures on Earth. The iron-oxide-dominated composition and morphology of terrestrial, nonbranching filamentous microbial biosignatures may be distinctive of the underlying formation and preservation processes. The Iron Mountain gossan consists primarily of ferric oxide (hematite), hydrous ferric oxide (HFO, predominantly goethite), and jarosite group minerals, categorized into in situ gossan, and remobilized iron deposits. We interpret HFO filaments, found in both gossan types, as HFO-mineralized microbial filaments based in part on (1) the presence of preserved central filament lumina in smooth HFO mineral filaments that are likely molds of microbial filaments, (2) mineral filament formation in actively precipitating iron-oxide environments, (3) high degrees of mineral filament bending consistent with a flexible microbial filament template, and (4) the presence of bare microbial filaments on gossan rocks. Individual HFO filaments are below the resolution of the Mars Curiosity and Mars 2020 rover cameras, but sinuous filaments forming macroscopic matlike textures are resolvable. If present on Mars, available cameras may resolve these features identified as similar to terrestrial HFO filaments and allow subsequent evaluation for their biogenicity by synthesizing geochemical, mineralogical, and morphological analyses. Sinuous biogenic filaments could be preserved on Mars in an iron-rich environment analogous to Iron Mountain, with the Pahrump Hills region and Hematite Ridge in Gale Crater as tentative possibilities. Key Words: Geobiology—Biosignatures—Filaments—Mars—Microbial fossils. Astrobiology 15, 637–668

Avaliação nutricional da silagem de grãos úmidos de milho com diferentes teores de óleo para leitões na fase de creche Nutritional evaluation of high moisture corn silage with different oil contents for piglets in nursery phase

Utilizaram-se 60 leitões mestiços (Large White x Landrace), desmamados com peso inicial médio de 7,9kg, no experimento de desempenho e 20 leitões mestiços, com peso inicial médio de 16,8kg, no experimento de digestibilidade para avaliar a silagem de grãos úmidos de milho com diferentes teores de óleo. O delineamento experimental foi o de blocos ao acaso em ambos os experimentos avaliou-se o valor nutricional das silagens e dos milhos secos com teor normal (4,3%EE na MS) ou elevado de óleo (5,66%EE na MS). Não houve efeito dos tratamentos sobre o consumo diário de ração e no ganho de peso diário nos períodos de 0 a 9 e 0 a 31 dias. Os leitões apresentaram melhor conversão alimentar em ambos os períodos estudados, quando receberam silagem e no período de 0 a 9 dias, quando foram alimentados com milho com teor mais alto de óleo. As frações digestível e metabolizável da energia foram influenciadas pelo processamento, sendo que a ensilagem proporcionou melhor aproveitamento da energia, independentemente do teor de óleo presente nos grãos.<br>Sixty crossbred weaned pigs (Large White x Landrace) average initial body weight of 7.9kg and 20 crossbred pigs average initial body weight of 16.8kg were used in the performance and digestibility experiments, respectively, to evaluate high-moisture corn silage with different oil contents. The nutritional value of high-moisture corn silage and dry corn with normal (4.3% EE in DM) or higher (5.66% EE in DM) oil contents were analyzed. The treatments had no effect on either average daily feed intake (ADFI) or average daily gain (ADG) from 0 to 9 and 0 to 31 days. The piglets had higher feed/weight gain in both periods when fed silage and in the period from 0 to 9 days when fed higher oil content corn. In the digestibility experiment only the digestible and metabolizable fractions of energy were affected by the processing method and the silage provided higher energy utilization regardless of the oil content in the grains