Survival and Activity of Methanogenic Archaea under Martian Conditions

Funding

HGF Alliance "Planetary Evolution and Life"

(2008-2013)

PhD candidate

Janosch Malaszkiewicz

Cooperation

Jean-Pierre de Vera
Mars simulation
DLR Institute of Planetary Research
Berlin, Germany

Background

Within our solar system, stable supplies of extraterrestrial water are invariably found in close association with ice and permafrost. The most promising and accessible targets in the search for past and present exobiological communities are the frozen surface of Mars and the ice-capped ocean of Europa. On Earth there is abundant evidence for microbes inhabiting liquid networks at sub-zero temperatures within glacial ice, ice-infiltrated sediments, sea ice and
permafrost. The survival and possible activity of methanogenic archaea, which have been isolated by AWI from Siberian permafrost-affected soils, will be investigated under Mars-analogue conditions by simulation experiments. The contribution of biofilm formation for the storage and availability of water and the effect of mineral-biota interaction on the survival and growth of methanogens and related production rates for methane will be studied.