[Hplusroadmap] Fwd: [Artemis] Cyanobacteria can process lunar soil

[Dan Bolser]

On 15/03/2008, Bryan Bishop <kanzure at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Saturday 15 March 2008, Dan Bolser wrote:
>  > On 15/03/2008, Bryan Bishop <kanzure at gmail.com> wrote:
>  > > On Saturday 15 March 2008, Dan Bolser wrote:
>  > > > OK, I see what you mean now. I was thinking that a variety of
>  > > >
>  > >  > 'inorganic' substances could work as oxidizers - some kind of
>  > >  > mineral chemistry supported by specialized organelles.
>  > >
>  > > Maybe. But aren't inorganics usually metals, so they don't really
>  > > pull electrons well? These are the elements that when put together
>  > > form the sea-of-electrons moving throughout the whole thing, kind
>  > > of like a giant probability field.
>  >
>  > Yeah, but crystals can get quite complex. Iron sulphur clusters are a
>  > key part of the energy metabolism of (almost?) all life. The clusters
>  > form electron transfer pathways - the most important of which is
>  > simply known as 'the electron transport pathway' which is critical
>  > for aerobic respiration. I need to know more about this though... I
>  > don't even know the difference between an anaerobic-chemoautotroph
>  > and an aerobic-photoheterotroph! Anyway, the point I want to make is
>  > that on earth different kinds of chemistry support the same basic
>  > forms of life. Often this is accomplished through symbiosis or
>  > 'modularization' through special cellular organelles that perform
>  > specific chemistry, often using 'inorganic' cofactors.
>
>
> To me it sounds like if we wanted to evolve a new way of processing
>  those inorganics, it would take quite a lot of effort: but I also don't
>  know what would happen (and this is necessarily largely unpredictable).
>  But the moontank idea could probably be made to work with that
>  information. What are the differences in the environments or
>  evolutionary history of the cells that do different metabolism of such
>  widely varying inorganic cofactors that you are mentioning? Have a list
>  of examples -- or just iron sulphur? etc.
>
>
>  > >  That's a big can of worms. In this scenario, the idea is to have
>  > >  bacteria processing minerals and starting the ecosystem for
>  > > sustained life on the moon. To do this, however, we need to be able
>  > > to do a complete trace on the mineral and nutritional requirements
>  > > of humans.
>  > >
>  > >  http://heybryan.org/mediawiki/index.php/Human_input_requirements
>  > >  -- Dan, you might like the software idea I have on that page,
>  > > maybe you can help me brainstorm on making that program more a
>  > > reality. At the moment I am manually going through the genes and
>  > > trying to find the atoms and elements required or trying to find
>  > > the food chains that probably exist, but I need a food chain
>  > > database, and some other things too.
>  >
>  > I'll have a look later. You probably want to see KEGG - which
>  > maintains lots of 'food chain' information (in biochemistry these are
>  > often just called pathways - or more precisely, metabolic pathways).
>  >
>  > http://biodatabase.org/index.php/KEGG
>
>
> Huh? So do they continue the metabolic pathway from the source
>  (photosynthesis + glucose in the plant) to, say, the digestion in my
>  stomach? That is truly impressive if so. :)

Yes. It is possible to link up the various pathways stored in KEGG
into the complete network of chemical transformations representing the
whole system of life on earth. (Or at least the parts we know). Some
researchers have a lot of fun analyzing this vast network of chemical
transformations. Others perform 'metabolic reconstruction' from the
genomic sequence of various organisms and others perform 'metabolic
engineering' to derive useful compounds from living systems. Think
'petrochemicals' (plastics, etc.). These various research activities
are supported by the data in KEGG and other such resources.

Jong and I were very interested in the analysis of this network in an
evolutionary context. Many of the complex molecules and co-factors
that exist on earth have 'evolved' via a process of chemical selection
within biological systems. (Of course DNA / RNA / Protein are also
molecules, but they are though of as 'biomolecules' or 'biopolymers'
rather than purely chemical entities). Using this kind of analysis we
hoped to discover the chemical conditions at the time that life first
emerged on earth. There are lots of different theories about this.

Dan.




>
>
>  - Bryan
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>  Bryan Bishop
>  http://heybryan.org/
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