[biorxiv.org] Biological individuals on Earth today are cellular, but the simplest cells are too complex to have arisen spontaneously.
Microbiology & Virology
Posted inGenomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics
An Integrated Culturomic And Genomic Database And Analysis Platform For Methanogenic Archaea
[Database] Methanogenic archaea research is challenged by limited strain resources, fragmented genomic data, inconsistent genome quality, substantial uncultured lineages, and difficulties in laboratory culturing, hindering advances in biogas production, climate […]
Posted inAway Teams & Field Reports
Ice Planet Exploration: Tara Polaris I Expedition
[ESA] Soon to be frozen in space and time, this alien-looking vessel is beginning its first mission into drifting ice in the Arctic Ocean. A dozen people won’t leave it […]
Posted inPlanetary Protection & Biosafety
A Framework for Evaluating Forward Contamination Risk for Bio-ISRU Microorganisms
[astro-ph.IM]. NASA planetary protection policy seeks to avoid inadvertent forward contamination of celestial bodies and backward contamination of Earth during space exploration.
Posted inArctic / Antarctic / Alpine
Atmospheric Microbial Transport to Antarctica and Its Ecological Implications: A Systematic Review
[Environmental Microbiology] Atmospheric transport is hypothesized to be the primary vector connecting isolated Antarctic terrestrial habitats to global microbial pools, yet the mechanisms governing this connectivity still have important gaps.
Posted inGenomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics
A Genomic Catalog Of Earth’s Bacterial And Archaeal Symbionts
[Nature Biotechnology] Microbial symbiosis drives the functional and phylogenomic diversification of life on Earth yet remains underexplored because of culturing challenges.
Posted inSample Return
Closed-loop In Situ Isolation Of Deep-sea Extremophiles Through Sensor-driven Microenvironment Preservation
[Nature Sensors] Deep sea microorganisms remain largely inaccessible because existing sampling and cultivation methods fail to preserve native high-pressure microenvironments from seafloor to laboratory.
Posted inBiophysics
How A Deep-sea Protein Adapts To An Extreme Environment
[Kyushu University] Life in the deep sea is under immense pressure—literally. Such extreme conditions can disrupt the delicate structures of proteins essential to life. Yet somehow, the proteins in deep-sea […]
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology
Carbon and Sulfur Isotopes of Microfossils and Pyrites from Neoarchean Cherts: Microbial Diversity in an Ancient Deep-Marine Environment
[Astrobiology (Journal) via PubMed] The 2.52 Ga Gamohaan Formation in South Africa offers critical insights into microbial ecosystems that inhabited deep-marine environments during the late Archean.
Posted inGenomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics
ExMODE: A Comprehensive Resource For Extremophile Genomic And Functional Exploration
[iMetaOmics] ExMODE (https://db.genomics.cn/exmode/) integrates 3518 samples to build a unified extremophile resource, which hosts 1.35 billion habitat-specific non-redundant genes, 5.25 million representative protein structures, 67,026 metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs), and 164,132 […]