UV irradiation of biomarkers adsorbed on minerals under Martian-like conditions: Hints for life detection on Mars

Teresa Fornaro; Arjen Boosman; John R. Brucato; Inge Loes ten Kate; Sandra Siljeström; Giovanni Poggiali; Andrew Steele; Robert M. Hazen

doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2018.05.001

UV irradiation of biomarkers adsorbed on minerals under Martian-like conditions: Hints for life detection on Mars

Teresa Fornaro^*, Arjen Boosman, John R. Brucato, Inge Loes ten Kate, Sandra Siljeström, Giovanni Poggiali, Andrew Steele, Robert M. Hazen

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Laboratory simulations of Martian conditions are essential to develop quantitative models for the survival of organic biomarkers for future Mars exploration missions. In this work, we report the results of ultraviolet (UV) irradiation processing of biomarkers adsorbed on minerals under Martian-like conditions. Specifically, we prepared Mars soil analogues by doping forsterite, lizardite, antigorite, labradorite, natrolite, apatite and hematite minerals with organic compounds considered as potential biomarkers of extant terrestrial life such as the nucleotides adenosine monophosphate (AMP) and uridine monophosphate (UMP). We characterized such Mars soil analogues by means of Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF-SIMS), Diffuse Reflectance Infrared Fourier Transform Spectroscopy (DRIFTS) and Confocal Raman Imaging Spectroscopy (CRIS), in order to get insights into the specific molecule-mineral interactions and explore the capabilities of different techniques to reveal diagnostic features of these biomarkers. Then, we performed irradiation experiments in the mid-UV spectral region under simulated Martian conditions and under terrestrial ambient conditions for comparison, monitoring the degradation process through DRIFTS. We observed that degradation under Martian-like conditions occurs much slower than in terrestrial ambient conditions. The minerals labradorite and natrolite mainly promote photodegradation of nucleotides, hematite and forsterite exhibit an intermediate degrading effect, while apatite, lizardite and antigorite do not show any significant catalytic effect on the degradation of the target organic species.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	38-60
Number of pages	23
Journal	Icarus
Volume	313
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2018.05.001
Publication status	Published - Oct 2018

Funding

The authors acknowledge Helen King of the Utrecht University, Dionysis Foustoukos and Timothy Strobel of the Carnegie Institution for Science, for their scientific and technical assistance throughout this work. This research was supported by the COST Action TD1308-Origins, the NASA grant NNX13AJ19G (A. Steele PI), the Swedish National Space Board (contract 198/15), the Italian Space Agency (ASI) grant agreement ASI/INAF n. 2015-002-R.0 .

Keywords

Biomarkers
Infrared spectroscopy
Laboratory simulations
Mars soil analogues
Raman spectroscopy
ToF-SIMS

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10.1016/j.icarus.2018.05.001

1-s2.0-S0019103517307789-mainFinal published version, 4.5 MBLicence: Taverne

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title = "UV irradiation of biomarkers adsorbed on minerals under Martian-like conditions: Hints for life detection on Mars",

abstract = "Laboratory simulations of Martian conditions are essential to develop quantitative models for the survival of organic biomarkers for future Mars exploration missions. In this work, we report the results of ultraviolet (UV) irradiation processing of biomarkers adsorbed on minerals under Martian-like conditions. Specifically, we prepared Mars soil analogues by doping forsterite, lizardite, antigorite, labradorite, natrolite, apatite and hematite minerals with organic compounds considered as potential biomarkers of extant terrestrial life such as the nucleotides adenosine monophosphate (AMP) and uridine monophosphate (UMP). We characterized such Mars soil analogues by means of Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF-SIMS), Diffuse Reflectance Infrared Fourier Transform Spectroscopy (DRIFTS) and Confocal Raman Imaging Spectroscopy (CRIS), in order to get insights into the specific molecule-mineral interactions and explore the capabilities of different techniques to reveal diagnostic features of these biomarkers. Then, we performed irradiation experiments in the mid-UV spectral region under simulated Martian conditions and under terrestrial ambient conditions for comparison, monitoring the degradation process through DRIFTS. We observed that degradation under Martian-like conditions occurs much slower than in terrestrial ambient conditions. The minerals labradorite and natrolite mainly promote photodegradation of nucleotides, hematite and forsterite exhibit an intermediate degrading effect, while apatite, lizardite and antigorite do not show any significant catalytic effect on the degradation of the target organic species.",

keywords = "Biomarkers, Infrared spectroscopy, Laboratory simulations, Mars soil analogues, Raman spectroscopy, ToF-SIMS",

author = "Teresa Fornaro and Arjen Boosman and Brucato, {John R.} and {ten Kate}, {Inge Loes} and Sandra Siljestr{\"o}m and Giovanni Poggiali and Andrew Steele and Hazen, {Robert M.}",

year = "2018",

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doi = "10.1016/j.icarus.2018.05.001",

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T2 - Hints for life detection on Mars

AU - Fornaro, Teresa

AU - Boosman, Arjen

AU - Brucato, John R.

AU - ten Kate, Inge Loes

AU - Siljeström, Sandra

AU - Poggiali, Giovanni

AU - Steele, Andrew

AU - Hazen, Robert M.

PY - 2018/10

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AB - Laboratory simulations of Martian conditions are essential to develop quantitative models for the survival of organic biomarkers for future Mars exploration missions. In this work, we report the results of ultraviolet (UV) irradiation processing of biomarkers adsorbed on minerals under Martian-like conditions. Specifically, we prepared Mars soil analogues by doping forsterite, lizardite, antigorite, labradorite, natrolite, apatite and hematite minerals with organic compounds considered as potential biomarkers of extant terrestrial life such as the nucleotides adenosine monophosphate (AMP) and uridine monophosphate (UMP). We characterized such Mars soil analogues by means of Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF-SIMS), Diffuse Reflectance Infrared Fourier Transform Spectroscopy (DRIFTS) and Confocal Raman Imaging Spectroscopy (CRIS), in order to get insights into the specific molecule-mineral interactions and explore the capabilities of different techniques to reveal diagnostic features of these biomarkers. Then, we performed irradiation experiments in the mid-UV spectral region under simulated Martian conditions and under terrestrial ambient conditions for comparison, monitoring the degradation process through DRIFTS. We observed that degradation under Martian-like conditions occurs much slower than in terrestrial ambient conditions. The minerals labradorite and natrolite mainly promote photodegradation of nucleotides, hematite and forsterite exhibit an intermediate degrading effect, while apatite, lizardite and antigorite do not show any significant catalytic effect on the degradation of the target organic species.

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KW - Infrared spectroscopy

KW - Laboratory simulations

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UV irradiation of biomarkers adsorbed on minerals under Martian-like conditions: Hints for life detection on Mars

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