LEXEN: Paleobiology of Ancient Salt Formations: Examinations of Primary Crystals for Biological Materials

这个项目涉及微生物学家和地质学家，他们将试图从极古老（500万年或更古老）的盐晶体中分离出活的微生物。该计划将开发方法来识别那些最有可能包含有存活生命形式的晶体的地质构造。这个项目是一个成功的探索性LExEn项目的延续和扩展（古盐形成的古生物学：对捕获生物材料的初级晶体的检查，NSF奖# EAR 9714203），在这个项目中，研究人员从一个古老的氯化钠晶体中分离出世界上最古老的活细菌（2.5亿年前）。当前的项目有四个主要目标。首先，开发新的方法和培养基来分离、量化和分析被困在NaCl晶体中的古代微生物。第二，提高对生命和晶体形成时古环境的了解。三是扩大无公害样品回收方法的使用。第四，培养研究生和本科生将来从事极端环境微生物的跨学科工作。这个项目是基于这样一个假设：少量细菌被困在盐晶体的稳定环境中，可以存活很长一段时间。首席研究员的实验室参与了与盐晶体有关的极端嗜盐古菌的研究已有十多年了。自1991年以来，项目主任已就这一主题发表了10篇评审文章。该项目将获得盐晶体，其年龄范围从现代高盐环境到早中新世（20-24 Ma），早/中始新世（约50 Ma），晚二叠纪（约250 Ma）和晚志留纪（408- 421 Ma）。所产生的数据将描述演化的状态和这些晶体最初形成的环境。研究人员还将完成对他们已经从二叠纪年代的晶体中分离出来的2.5亿年前的细菌的描述。

This project involves both microbiologists and geologists who will attempt to isolate live microorganisms from extremely old (5 million years and older) salt crystals. The program will develop methods to identify those geological formations most likely to contain crystals with surviving life forms. This project is a continuation and expansion of a successful, exploratory LExEn Project (Paleobiology of Ancient Salt Formations: Examination of Primary Crystals for Trapped Biological Materials, NSF Award # EAR 9714203) during which the investigators isolated the worlds oldest living bacterium (250 million years old) from an ancient sodium chloride crystal. The current project has four main goals. First, to develop new methods and media to isolate, quantify and analyze ancient microbes trapped in NaCl crystals. Second, to improve understanding of life and the paleoenvironment at the time the crystals formed. Third to expand the use of non-contaminating methods for sample recovery. Fourth, to train graduate and undergraduate students for future interdisciplinary work with microbes from extreme environments. This project is based on the hypothesis that small numbers of bacteria, trapped in the stable environment of a salt crystal, can survive for extremely long periods of time. The Principal Investigator's laboratory has been involved in the study of extremely halophilic Archaea associated with salt crystals for over ten years. The Project Director has published ten refereed articles on this topic since 1991. The project will obtain salt crystals that range in age from modern hypersaline environments to Early Miocene (20-24 Ma), Early/Middle Eocene (ca. 50 Ma), Late Permian (ca. 250 Ma), and Late Silurian age (408- 421 Ma). The data produced will describe the state of evolution and the environment in which these crystals originally formed. The investigators will also complete the description of the 250 million year old bacteria they have already isolated from Permian aged crystals.