"The history of this discovery is very brief," says Panikov. "Before 1990 microbiologists strongly believed that even psychrophilic or cold-loving microorganisms do require liquid water to grow and multiply, and below zero they mainly survive switching to cell division after temporary warming of the polar ice or permafrost above the freezing point. In 1990-96, when environmental scientists started intensive year-round recording of gas emission from soils to atmosphere, they found sizeable winter activity of the tundra microbial community."
In laboratory experiments conducted in 2000 and 2004, Panikov and others, using sensitive radioisotope technique, detected respiratory activity of microorganisms down to -40C, the temperature interval which is already close to that on Mars' and Jupiter's natural satellites.
The particular goal of the of the current NSF project is to present convincing evidence that recorded respiration (formation of 14CO2 from added frozen 14C-glucose) is not an artifact, and that respective ultra-psychrophiles do exist in real sub-freezing environments such as Alaskan permafrost.
To prove it, Panikov will rely on the power of novel molecular DNA/RNA techniques combined with attempts to 'domesticate' these organisms: to isolate them and cultivate them on artificial media.
"The major technical problem is that their activity and growth rate is extremely low," says Panikov. "From mathematical models, I have calculated that expected gene
'"/>
Contact: Patrick A. Berzinski
pberzins@stevens.edu
201-216-5687
Stevens Institute of Technology
15-Dec-2004