NEWS
Preliminary testing on water from Lake Whillans, located 2,600 feet below the surface of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, has shown signs of life.
Douglas Fox, a journalist embedded on the mission, reports that one of the cultures being grown from a Lake Whillans water sample already shows cells which glow green with the addition of DNA sensitive dye.
The water samples are being cultured in order to reveal any microbes which might be living in the extreme habitat. The microscopic glowing cells are a promising result, although Fox points out that dead cells can also be picked up with DNA staining under a microscope. Determining whether the cells are capable of growth will take a lot longer, as will working out whether they are from a known species or something entirely new.
"Weeks or months will pass before it is known whether these cells represent known types of microbes, or something never seen before," said Fox in Discover Magazine online. "But a couple of things seem likely. Most of those microbes probably subsist by chewing on rocks. And despite being sealed beneath 2,600 feet of ice, they probably have a steady supply of oxygen."
The oxygen in this scenario would come from air bubbles trapped in the Antarctic ice which are released when the ice melts. The "chewing on rocks" comment references a theory that any live bacteria may be could be subsisting on a diet of iron and sulphur from pyrite minerals. The sulphuric acid produced as waste would in turn lead to weathering of other materials in the lake.
"The fact that we see high concentrations [of dissolved minerals in the lake as opposed to the ice directly above] is suggestive that there's some interesting water-rock-microbe interaction that's going on," said Andrew Mitchell, a microbial geochemist from Aberystwyth University also on the Lake Whillans mission.
As with similar projects at Lake Vostok, Lake Vida, and the aborted drilling mission at Lake Ellsworth by the British Antarctic Survey, discoveries of life in extreme sub-glacial environments could shed light on other potential habitats in our solar system.
Douglas Fox, a journalist embedded on the mission, reports that one of the cultures being grown from a Lake Whillans water sample already shows cells which glow green with the addition of DNA sensitive dye.
The water samples are being cultured in order to reveal any microbes which might be living in the extreme habitat. The microscopic glowing cells are a promising result, although Fox points out that dead cells can also be picked up with DNA staining under a microscope. Determining whether the cells are capable of growth will take a lot longer, as will working out whether they are from a known species or something entirely new.
"Weeks or months will pass before it is known whether these cells represent known types of microbes, or something never seen before," said Fox in Discover Magazine online. "But a couple of things seem likely. Most of those microbes probably subsist by chewing on rocks. And despite being sealed beneath 2,600 feet of ice, they probably have a steady supply of oxygen."
The oxygen in this scenario would come from air bubbles trapped in the Antarctic ice which are released when the ice melts. The "chewing on rocks" comment references a theory that any live bacteria may be could be subsisting on a diet of iron and sulphur from pyrite minerals. The sulphuric acid produced as waste would in turn lead to weathering of other materials in the lake.
"The fact that we see high concentrations [of dissolved minerals in the lake as opposed to the ice directly above] is suggestive that there's some interesting water-rock-microbe interaction that's going on," said Andrew Mitchell, a microbial geochemist from Aberystwyth University also on the Lake Whillans mission.
As with similar projects at Lake Vostok, Lake Vida, and the aborted drilling mission at Lake Ellsworth by the British Antarctic Survey, discoveries of life in extreme sub-glacial environments could shed light on other potential habitats in our solar system.