EAGER: Colonization at the Fringe of Habitability

渴望：在宜居性边缘的殖民

• 批准号: 2305593
• 负责人: Brian Hynek
• 金额: $ 1.96万
• 依托单位: University of Colorado at Boulder
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-01-15 至 2024-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2305593&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAGER; Colonization; Fringe; Habitability

This project focuses on microbial colonization and survival within one of the newest and most hostile lakes on the planet: Laguna Caliente in the active Poás volcano in Costa Rica. The creation of nascent, sterile, aquatic environments on Earth are exceedingly rare; thus, this research is a novel approach in studying how microbial life can colonize and evolve in a new lake. The project increases our understanding of habitability on early Earth and Mars, which experienced equally harsh hydro-volcanic settings with repeated sterilization events. This extreme aquatic environment on top of an active volcano can reach boiling temperatures, is more acidic than battery acid, and experiences frequent eruptions. This research analyzes a time series of samples collected since the sterilization event utilizing existing protocols. DNA sequencing results will establish colonization and ecological succession through time. The laboratory work and subsequent analyses is led by a female undergraduate student. A public lecture on ‘microbiology at the extreme’ is planned to disseminate novel research results and the implications for early life on Earth and Mars.This research explores microbial dispersal, colonization, and ecological succession in a hostile environment by examining the time-series distribution of Acidiphilium bacteria across an active volcano. The Poás volcano summit crater lake was created after the sterilizing magmatic activity waned, allowing the nascent lake to form in late 2019. Since then, aseptic sampling of the lake fluids and lake bottom muds has occurred on a roughly two-month cadence, establishing a time-series of samples. Laboratory investigations of the samples include 16S rRNA NextGen sequencing and downstream analyses to determine community characteristics through time to address colonization and community evolution. Metagenomics results are used to probe genetic adaptations that confer survival in this harsh environment, including functional pathways to reduce the effects of toxic metals, such as the extremely high concentrations of arsenic. Identified potential metabolic pathways are being compared to chemical energy estimates derived from co-sampled lake fluids. The results of this study provide baseline data to address the timescales for colonization and the changes in community characteristics through time for one of the newest and most dynamic lakes on Earth. These findings have direct implications for early microbial survival on Earth with significant implications for the early evolution of life on our planet.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该项目的重点是微生物在地球上最新、最恶劣的湖泊之一中的定殖和生存：哥斯达黎加波阿斯活火山的拉古纳卡连特湖。地球上新生的、无菌的水生环境的形成极为罕见。因此，这项研究是研究微生物生命如何在新湖泊中定居和进化的一种新颖方法。该项目增进了我们对早期地球和火星宜居性的了解，它们经历了同样严酷的水火山环境和反复的绝育事件。活火山顶部的这种极端水生环境可以达到沸腾温度，其酸性比电池酸更强，并且会频繁喷发。这项研究利用现有方案分析了自灭菌事件以来收集的一系列样本。 DNA 测序结果将随着时间的推移确定殖民和生态演替。实验室工作和后续分析由一名女本科生领导。计划举办一场关于“极端微生物学”的公开讲座，以传播新的研究成果以及对地球和火星上早期生命的影响。这项研究通过检查活火山中嗜酸性细菌的时间序列分布，探索恶劣环境中微生物的扩散、定植和生态演替。波阿斯火山山顶火山口湖是在消毒岩浆活动减弱后形成的，新生湖泊于 2019 年底形成。此后，大约每两个月对湖液和湖底泥进行无菌取样，建立了样本的时间序列。对样本的实验室研究包括 16S rRNA NextGen 测序和下游分析，以确定随时间变化的群落特征，以解决定植和群落进化问题。宏基因组学结果用于探索在这种恶劣环境中赋予生存的遗传适应，包括减少有毒金属（例如极高浓度的砷）影响的功能途径。已确定的潜在代谢途径正在与从共同采样的湖液中得出的化学能估计值进行比较。这项研究的结果提供了基线数据，以解决地球上最新、最具活力的湖泊之一的殖民化时间尺度以及群落特征随时间的变化。这些发现对地球上早期微生物的生存有直接影响，对地球上生命的早期进化具有重大影响。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。