Re: Microbe Fossils-Mars
Enigl@aol.com
Sat, 23 Aug 1997 18:09:50 -0400 (EDT)
In a message dated 97-08-23 13:46:44 EDT, you write:
<< > Spores can survive hundreds of millions of years in space.
>
> danny
What is this statement based on? >>
Well, spore do not have a validated stability of millions of years in space.
Spores *do* have a long survival. Some one on the list found data that
spores survived with out count reduction in viability on the Moon. The
spores were recovered by a manned space mission, I believe. Since spores
are very inert hostile environments kill very few spores (e.g., _Bacillus_).
Even cosmic/gamma ray damage would probably be negligible for things like
_Deinococcus radiodurans_ and _D. radiophilus_, , _Agrobacterium
radiobacter_ (formerly _Bacillus radiobacter_), _Micrococcus radiodurans_,
_Arthrobacter radiotolerans_, Radiococcus radiodurans_. And then the
thermophilic bacteria are usually spore formers too as are the hydrogen
peroxide resistance bacteria. All of these have injury repair mechanisms
that I have done research on for for the past ten years. I am trained in
environmental microbiology (bacteria, yeast, mold, etc.), hostile
environments, microbial ecology, adaptation to stress, mixed cell/multicell
interaction biofilm type "organisms", etc.
Also bacteriospores once activated, have DNA repair enzyme systems--so even
if there is a great count reduction in viable spores, only a few survivors
could repopulate the whole colony.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Davin C. Enigl, MEAS, Master of Environmental Arts and Sciences
President-Microbiologist, HACCP Validations (tm). Quality Assurance, Quality
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August 23, 1997
2:27 pm PACIFIC