Badass Bacteria

[Dannyalcatraz]

A really nifty new bug astounds scientists, broadening our understanding of the limits of "life."

Arsenic-munching germ redefines 'life as we know it' - Yahoo! News

 

[LightPhoenix]

I've been following this, and it's really cool. Obviously, the big meaning behind this is that life can exist in phosphorous-poor conditions; ie, P isn't a prerequisite for life as we know it. There's a more subtle meaning behind it as well. It suggests that elements traditionally considered unstable (that is, they bond weakly) have the potential to be basic biological building blocks.

However, there are a large number of biochemical caveats here.

First and foremost, this only suggests that similar elements in a group can substitute. Arsenic and P are very similar; in fact, that's what makes Ar so toxic - it substitutes for P and interferes with "downstream" reactions. There's only one other substitution that is really feasible - selenium for sulfur (which we do see in bacterial amino acids such as selenocysteine). On the non-essential side, the big difference I could see happening is bromine for chlorine; they're somewhat similar. In contrast, silicon and carbon are fairly different chemically.

This isn't to say life couldn't exist outside this schema (CHONP*S*); just that it would be vastly different biochemically to Earth-based life.

 

[jonesy]

When they had the whole NASA about to report on discovery which will affect the search for extraterrestrial life news thingy I thought it'd be something on Mars or Europa.

But that's pretty neat.

 

[frankthedm]

Anyone have a idea on what this bacterium's bio-weapon applications could be? Embarrassingly, it's a field of knowledge I'm critically lacking in.

 

[LightPhoenix]

In theory, you might be able to use it to poison a water supply. If you throw these bacteria in the wild, they'll rapidly switch back over to phosphorous (per the paper). Whether the excess arsenic is removed from the cell, or kept in the cell, the paper didn't say. I'd assume it's excreted by the cell. You'd have to dose the water pretty heavily though, so it'd be more practical just to dump arsenic in the water. So there's not much bioweapons use for this.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I think that their biggest potential uses by man lie in the other direction: detection & cleanup.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Anyone have a idea on what this bacterium's bio-weapon applications could be? Embarrassingly, it's a field of knowledge I'm critically lacking in.

Well, if we ever fight aliens that live in arsenic rich environment, we could use this bacteria as a carrier for our biological weapons.

I suppose that's pretty much it.

Interesting read perhaps: Hypothetical types of biochemistry - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Umbran]

Anyone have a idea on what this bacterium's bio-weapon applications could be? Embarrassingly, it's a field of knowledge I'm critically lacking in.

The fact that the critter can replace phosphorus with arsenic in its system (living, but growing more slowly than if it used phosphorus) does not make it particularly interesting as a weapon. The beast is (so far) only found in one particular lake - which suggests that it tends to be out-performed by other microbes in other environments.

 

[Viking Bastard]

So, scientists have pretty much discovered the Anti-Life Equation, right? We already have the Kirby Dots (http://www.bleedingcool.com/wp-content/uploads//2010/11/anti.jpg).

 

[El Mahdi]

There seems to be some controversy over whether the bacteria really incorporate Arsenic into it's DNA...

Scientists: NASA's claim of microbe that can live on arsenic is 'flawed'

NASA Defends "Alien" Findings Despite Criticism

NASA's Bacteria-Arsenic Finding: 'Flim-Flam' or 'Compelling'?

NASA's Arsenic-Loving Bacteria Don't Love Arsenic After All, Critics Say


Even if it's determined that NASA's conclusions were incorrect, it seems to me that it's still a pretty hardy bacteria to be living in such a toxic environment.