Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12666/835
Title: Mars-like UV Flux and Ionizing Radiation Differently Affect Biomarker Detectability in the Desert Cyanobacterium Chroococcidiopsis as Revealed by the Life Detector Chip Antibody Microarray
Authors: Billi, Daniela
Blanco, Yolanda
Ianneo, Andrea
Moreno Paz, M.
Aguirre, Jacobo
Baqué, Mickael
Moeller, Ralf
De Vera, Jean Pierre
Parro García, V.
Keywords: Biomarkers;Life detector;Cyanobacteria;Mars-like UV;Ionizing radiation
Issue Date: 3-Oct-2022
Publisher: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers
Published version: https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/epub/10.1089/ast.2022.0013
Citation: Astrobiology VOLUME 22 ISSUE 10
Abstract: The effect of a Mars-like UV flux and γ-radiation on the detectability of biomarkers in dried cells of Chroococcidiopsis sp. CCMEE 029 was investigated using a fluorescence sandwich microarray immunoassay. The production of anti-Chroococcidiopsis antibodies allowed the immunoidentification of a reduced, though still detectable, signal in dried cells mixed with phyllosilicatic and sulfatic Mars regolith simulants after exposure to 6.8 × 105 kJ/m2 of a Mars-like UV flux. No signal was detected in dried cells that were not mixed with minerals after 1.4 × 105 kJ/m2. For γ-radiation (60Co), no detectable variations of the fluorescence signal occurred in dried cells exposed to 113 kGy compared to non-irradiated dried cells. Our results suggest that immunoassay-based techniques could be used to detect life tracers eventually present in the martian subsurface in freshly excavated materials only if shielded from solar UV. The high structural integrity of biomarkers irradiated with γ-radiation that mimics a dose accumulated in 13 Myr at 2 m depth from the martian surface has implications for the potential detectability of similar organic molecules/compounds by future life-detection missions such as the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover.
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12666/835
E-ISSN: 1557-8070
ISSN: 1531-1074
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