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Bacterial Biofilms in Astrobiology: The Importance of Life Detection

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Fossil and Recent Biofilms

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Abstract

Experience gathered by researchers during their hunt for evidence of early life on Earth has shown the difficulties associated with the interpretation of possible microbial fossils (Schopf and Walter, 1983; Schopf, 1999a; Brazier et al., 2001). Indeed the controversy surrounding the earliest life on Earth is akin to the debate (e.g. Thomas-Keprta, 2000; Golden et al., 2000) on the nature of the nano-structures in Martian meteorite ALH84001 described by McKay et al. (1996). Both these examples emphasise the difficulties involved in (a) conclusively identifying structures as fossil bacterial cells and (b) establishing their indigeneity/syngenicity to the host matrix. Better understanding of biological signatures in rocks is, therefore, needed in order to identify traces of microbial life (Knoll, 1999). These traces include not only the characteristic morphologies of potentially fossilised microorganisms, but also include organic biomarker molecules, isotopic fractionations, biological mineralisation and possibly trace element concentrations. It is thus crucial to tackle the problems emerging from the search for evidence of early life on Earth and in exobiological and — palaeontological research with a multi-disciplinary approach (Knoll, 1999). Techniques traditionally applied in the hunt for evidence of early life on Earth included light and electron microscopy for the detection of morphological biomarkers (Schopf, 1999a; Westall, 2000) and gas chromatography — mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) for molecular biomarkers (Peters & Moldowan, 1993). Neither approach however is capable of combining morphological, isotopic and chemical information from individual structures, which is crucial to obtain unambiguous data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Astrobiology Group, University of Portsmouth, Burnaby Building, Portsmouth, PO1 3QL, UK

    Jan Toporski

  2. Mail Code SN, NASA JSC, 77058, Houston, Texas, USA

    Andrew Steele & David S. McKay

  3. Lunar and Planetary Institute, 3600 Bay Area Blvd., 77058, Houston, Texas, USA

    Frances Westall

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  1. Jan Toporski
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  2. Andrew Steele
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  3. David S. McKay
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  4. Frances Westall
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. ICBM, Carl von Ossietzky University Olgenburg, Germany

    Wolfgang Elisabeth Krumbein

  2. Gatty Marine Laboratory, University of St. Andrews, Scotland, UK

    David Maxwell Paterson

  3. Institute of Microbiology, Russian Academy of Science, Moscow, Russia

    Georgii Aleksandrovich Zavarzin

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Toporski, J., Steele, A., McKay, D.S., Westall, F. (2003). Bacterial Biofilms in Astrobiology: The Importance of Life Detection. In: Krumbein, W.E., Paterson, D.M., Zavarzin, G.A. (eds) Fossil and Recent Biofilms. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-0193-8_31

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-0193-8_31

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