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Journal Articles Applied and Environmental Microbiology Year : 2015

Multiplication of microbes below 0.690 water activity: implications for terrestrial and extraterrestrial life

Andrew Stevenson
  • Function : Author
Jürgen Burkhardt
  • Function : Author
Charles S. Cockell
  • Function : Author
Jonathan A. Cray
  • Function : Author
Jan Dijksterhuis
  • Function : Author
Mark Fox-Powell
  • Function : Author
Terence P. Kee
  • Function : Author
Gerhard Kminek
  • Function : Author
Terry J. Mcgenity
  • Function : Author
Kenneth N. Timmis
  • Function : Author
David J. Timson
  • Function : Author
Mary A. Voytek
  • Function : Author
Frances Westall
Michail M. Yakimov
  • Function : Author
John E. Hallsworth
  • Function : Author

Abstract

Since a key requirement of known life forms is available water (water activity; aw), recent searches for signatures of past life in terrestrial and extraterrestrial environments have targeted places known to have contained significant quantities of biologically available water. However, early life on Earth inhabited high-salt environments, suggesting an ability to withstand low water-activity. The lower limit of water activity that enables cell division appears to be ∼ 0.605 which, until now, was only known to be exhibited by a single eukaryote, the sugar-tolerant, fungal xerophile Xeromyces bisporus. The first forms of life on Earth were, though, prokaryotic. Recent evidence now indicates that some halophilic Archaea and Bacteria have water-activity limits more or less equal to those of X. bisporus. We discuss water activity in relation to the limits of Earth's present-day biosphere; the possibility of microbial multiplication by utilizing water from thin, aqueous films or non-liquid sources; whether prokaryotes were the first organisms able to multiply close to the 0.605-aw limit; and whether extraterrestrial aqueous milieux of ≥ 0.605 aw can resemble fertile microbial habitats found on Earth.
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Dates and versions

insu-01206203 , version 1 (07-03-2021)

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Andrew Stevenson, Jürgen Burkhardt, Charles S. Cockell, Jonathan A. Cray, Jan Dijksterhuis, et al.. Multiplication of microbes below 0.690 water activity: implications for terrestrial and extraterrestrial life. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 2015, 17 (2), pp.257-277. ⟨10.1111/1462-2920.12598⟩. ⟨insu-01206203⟩
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