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BIOAVAILABILITY OF ORGANICS FOR LIFE IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM

太阳系生命有机物的生物利用度

基本信息

批准号：
2903266
负责人：
金额：
--
依托单位：
University of Manchester
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Studentship
财政年份：
2023
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2023 至无数据
项目状态：
未结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2903266
关键词：
BIOAVAILABILITY ORGANICS LIFE SOLAR SYSTEM

项目摘要

Our understanding of planetary habitability is necessarily limited to our knowledge of life on Earth. A fundamental and as yet underexplored component of habitability is the availability of organic chemical energy for growth. Potentially habitable planetary bodies like Mars and Europa host a plethora of inorganic compounds that could be used as sources of energy (for instance ferric iron, sulfate in minerals and perchlorate at and near the surface), but the availability of organic substrates for growth in anaerobic microbial metabolism is not well understood. This project will combine experimental and molecular microbiology, geochemistry and energetic predictions to assess the ability for microbial life to be fuelled by organic material prevalent in carbonaceous meteorites. These meteorites have rained down on planetary bodies for billions of years, hence organic carbon is not expected to be limiting. Indeed, complex organic matter akin to that found in carbonaceous chondrites was recently detected at Gale Crater on Mars. Most life on Earth uses organic carbon as a substrate for growth, yet the extent to which the myriad organic compounds in meteorites expected to be present on Mars and other potentially habitable planetary bodies is unknown. This represents a critical knowledge gap to our understanding of habitability beyond Earth, and is the focus of this exciting multidisciplinary Astrobiology PhD project.

我们对行星宜居性的理解必然仅限于我们对地球生命的了解。宜居性的一个基本且尚未得到充分探索的组成部分是用于生长的有机化学能源的可用性。像火星和木卫二这样的潜在宜居行星体拥有大量可用作能源的无机化合物（例如三价铁、矿物质中的硫酸盐以及表面及其附近的高氯酸盐），但厌氧微生物代谢中生长的有机基质的可用性尚不清楚。该项目将结合实验和分子微生物学、地球化学和能量预测，评估碳质陨石中普遍存在的有机物质为微生物生命提供燃料的能力。这些陨石在行星体上降落了数十亿年，因此预计有机碳不会受到限制。事实上，最近在火星盖尔陨石坑中发现了类似于碳质球粒陨石中发现的复杂有机物质。地球上的大多数生命都使用有机碳作为生长的基质，但陨石中的无数有机化合物预计存在于火星和其他潜在宜居行星体上的程度尚不清楚。这代表了我们对地球以外宜居性的理解存在一个关键的知识差距，也是这个令人兴奋的多学科天体生物学博士项目的重点。