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Self-contained microbe colony thrives under the ice
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 16 - 04 - 2009


A colony of iron-breathing
microbes has survived for millions of years under an Antarctic
glacier, thriving without air or sunlight, Reuters cited researchers
as reporting today.
The tiny organisms were probably trapped when the sea they
were living in became sealed in the ice and they may have
survived since then on the decomposing remains of other sea
life, the researchers reported in the journal Science.
"This gives us some insight into how life survives for
extended periods of time in cold, dark conditions," Jill
Mikucki of Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, who worked on
the study, said in a telephone interview.
Such creatures survive in extreme environments on Earth and
perhaps on other planets and moons, she said. "I think it can
provide some insight into space exploration," she said.
Antarctica's Blood Falls are well-known -- a frozen
waterfall colored bright red by iron, which attracted attention
as early as 1911.
It comes from a very slow leak from a pool buried deep
beneath the ice, Mikucki said -- a pool teeming with tiny,
living cells.
They are surviving 2.5 miles (4 km) beneath the ice in a
brine loaded with iron and sulfur. "The brine comes out through
some kind of crack," Mikucki said. "I got lucky one year and we
were able to capture samples while it was actively flowing."
She was able to culture living microbes, including
Thiomicrospira arctica, which metabolizes sulfur, and
Desulfocapsa sulfoexigens, which can live without oxygen.
Mikucki said it is not clear how many newly discovered
species there may be.
"It's a bit like finding a forest that nobody has seen for
1.5 million years," Ann Pearson of Harvard University in
Massachusetts, who worked on the study, said in a statement.
"Intriguingly, the species living there are similar to
contemporary organisms, and yet quite different -- a result, no
doubt, of having lived in such an inhospitable environment for
so long."


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