Water Activities of Acid Brine Lakes Approach the Limit for Life

Benison, Kathleen C.; O'Neill, William Kenneth; Blain, David; Hallsworth, John E.

doi:10.1089/ast.2020.2334

Cited by 31 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…The water activity indeed reached lower values in the WCLs than those recently measured in acid brines considered close to life-limiting (0.714) (Benison et al, 2021).…”

Section: Physicochemistry Of the Western Canyon Lakesmentioning

confidence: 46%

Archaeal overdominance close to life‐limiting conditions in geothermally influenced hypersaline lakes at the Danakil Depression, Ethiopia

Belilla

Iniesto

Moreira

et al. 2021

Environmental Microbiology

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T he Dallol protovolcanic area on the Danakil Depres s ion (Afar region, E thiopia) exhibits unique hydrothermal manifes tations in hypers aline context, yielding varied polyextreme phys icochemical conditions . P revious s tudies identified a wide archaeal divers ity in les s extreme brines but failed to identify microorganis ms thriving in either high-chaotropicity, low-wateractivity brines or hyperacidic-hypers aline Na-F e-rich brines . R ecently, we acces s ed s everal s mall lakes under intens e degas s ing activity adjacent to the R ound Mountain, wes t to the Dallol dome (Wes tern C anyon Lakes ; WC L1-5). T hey exhibited intermediate parameter combinations (pH~5, 34-41% NaC l-dominated s alts with relatively high levels of chaotropic Mg-C a s alts ) that s hould allow to better cons train life limits . T hes e lakes were overwhelmingly dominated by Archaea, encompas s ing up to 99% of prokaryotic 16S rR NA gene amplicon s equences in metabarcoding s tudies . T he majority belonged to Halobacteriota and Nanohaloarchaeota, the latter repres enting up to half of prokaryotic s equences . Optical and epifluores cence micros copy s howed active cells in natural s amples and divers e morphotypes in enrichment cultures . S canning electron micros copy coupled with energy-dis pers ive x-ray s pectros copy revealed tiny cells (200-300 nm diameter) epibiotically as s ociated with s omewhat larger cells (0.6-1 µm) but als o the pres ence of s ilica-dominated precipitates of s imilar s ize and s hape, highlighting the difficulty of dis tinguis hing microbes from mineral biomorphs in this kind of low-biomas s s ys tems .

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“…The water activity indeed reached lower values in the WCLs than those recently measured in acid brines considered close to life-limiting (0.714) (Benison et al, 2021).…”

Section: Physicochemistry Of the Western Canyon Lakesmentioning

confidence: 46%

Archaeal overdominance close to life‐limiting conditions in geothermally influenced hypersaline lakes at the Danakil Depression, Ethiopia

Belilla

Iniesto

Moreira

et al. 2021

Environmental Microbiology

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“…According to the data obtained, the clouds of Venus contain up to 75% sulfuric acid [2][3][4]17]. Under such extreme conditions, a strong selection for extreme acidophilic organisms might have occurred [23][24][25][26]. Prior to catastrophic climate change on Venus, all the types of extremophilic microorganisms would have occupied the appropriate ecological niches.…”

Section: How Could a Microbial Community Have Been Formed In The Clouds Of Venus During Its Catastrophic Overheating?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Water–Sulfuric Acid Foam as a Possible Habitat for Hypothetical Microbial Community in the Cloud Layer of Venus

Складнев

Karlov

Khrunyk

et al. 2021

Life

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The data available at the moment suggest that ancient Venus was covered by extensive bodies of water which could harbor life. Later, however, the drastic overheating of the planet made the surface of Venus uninhabitable for Earth-type life forms. Nevertheless, hypothetical Venusian organisms could have gradually adapted to conditions within the cloud layer of Venus—the only niche containing liquid water where the Earth-type extremophiles could survive. Here we hypothesize that the unified internal volume of a microbial community habitat is represented by the heterophase liquid-gas foam structure of Venusian clouds. Such unity of internal space within foam water volume facilitates microbial cells movements and trophic interactions between microorganisms that creates favorable conditions for the effective development of a true microbial community. The stabilization of a foam heterophase structure can be provided by various surfactants including those synthesized by living cells and products released during cell lysis. Such a foam system could harbor a microbial community of different species of (poly)extremophilic microorganisms that are capable of photo- and chemosynthesis and may be closely integrated into aero-geochemical processes including the processes of high-temperature polymer synthesis on the planet’s surface. Different complex nanostructures transferred to the cloud layers by convection flows could further contribute to the stabilization of heterophase liquid-gas foam structure and participate in chemical and photochemical reactions, thus supporting ecosystem stability.

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“…Large and complex microbial communities occur in low water activity habitats such as brines (Lee et al, 2018;Benison et al, 2021) and the soils of some of the driest environments in the world (Cowan et al, 2002;Uritskiy et al, 2019). This suggests that many microorganisms might be particularly adept at entering, surviving and then recovering from anhydrobiosis.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microbial anhydrobiosis

Bosch

Varliero

Hallsworth

et al. 2021

Environmental Microbiology

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This review reports the state of knowledge on metabolism during the anhydrobiotic state in microorganisms, and highlights the substantial gaps in our understanding of the qualitative and quantitative aspects of molecular and biochemical processes in desiccated microbial cells. Despite these knowledge gaps, we also argue that the available data, while often not directly quantifying anhydrobiotic metabolism, may support the concept of "anhydrobiotic basal metabolism" as a long-term survival strategy.

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Water Activities of Acid Brine Lakes Approach the Limit for Life

Cited by 31 publications

References 67 publications

Archaeal overdominance close to life‐limiting conditions in geothermally influenced hypersaline lakes at the Danakil Depression, Ethiopia

Archaeal overdominance close to life‐limiting conditions in geothermally influenced hypersaline lakes at the Danakil Depression, Ethiopia

Water–Sulfuric Acid Foam as a Possible Habitat for Hypothetical Microbial Community in the Cloud Layer of Venus

Microbial anhydrobiosis

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