The Wright Valley is one of the dry McMurdo valleys in Antarctica, where extremophilic cyanobacteria live, called hypolites.
Survival techniques used by hypolytic cyanobacteria under quartz rocks in terrestrial deserts may indicate how martian life can survive.
In the dry valleys of McMurdo (Antarctica) there is no movement. The bright sun illuminates the rocky gutters, hiding between the snow-capped mountains. The fingerprint can last for decades, because it never rains here. This is one of the most inhospitable places on the planet, but it is important for researchers, because it can reveal the secrets of life in other worlds.
The Martian surface is a cold desert, so researchers are looking for these components on Earth to study such an environment and survival conditions. McMerlot Valley is one of the best options. Under quartz rocks, you can find small groups of bacteria. These are cyanobacteria that can transform sunlight into energy. They are called hypoliths, and they are known for being able to adapt to the most unsuitable conditions. Scientists have taken samples of these bacteria in deserts around the world. They found that the conditions of the desert are quite variable, so in some deserts the bacteria thrive, and in others they do not. For example, in some rare extreme precipitation falls, while in others there is an eternal night fog.
Hypolytic cyanobacteria live in quartz rocks that transmit light but also protect from UV light. Thanks to photosynthesis, these tiny green bacteria are the main source of biomass in the desert, which is why they become the main food chain of the ecosystem. If you understand how they manage to survive in such conditions, you can understand how the same thing happens on other planets.
Hypolytic cyanobacteria on quartz rock in the Namib Desert
In various deserts, scientists have extracted 64 political groups in order to understand how much they will differ depending on the location of the desert. This is a common species, but there are dominant groups. For example, in cold deserts, like Tibetan and Antarctic, filamentous cyanobacteria Phormidium predominate.
Under a microscope, Phormidium resembles short spaghetti and is able to exploit habitat that fluctuates between short favorable periods and long dry periods. They perfectly survive in the valleys of McMurdo, where dry, extremely cold periods change to warmer, wet ones due to the melting of ice. In hot places, Chroococcidiopsis is more common. This is a photosynthetic type that resembles green balls in a group. Able to emit water from the mist and absorb into the shell. Although the bacterium is suitable for hot deserts, its mechanisms can be applied to the Red Planet. Mars can be extremely cold, but it lacks a magnetized atmosphere to protect itself from solar radiation. So the strategy of Chroococcidiopsis to capture moisture could save from radiation.
Scientists plan to study the sequence of the complete genome of these communities of cyanobacteria in order to find unique genes that allow them to remain viable in adverse conditions.
