August 2024 – Page 21 – My WordPress Site

Hypothetical sequence of events that led to the origin of the purple-green photosymbiosis of P. tenue. See main text for details. Note that all ancestors and extant species remain phagotrophic (or mixotrophic in the case of photosymbiosis). This study has revealed the order of endosymbiont acquisition in P. tenue and potential pre adaptations that facilitated the symbiosis. These insights have, in turn, shed light on the question of how two contrasting photosynthetic symbionts came to exist within the same host. Moreover, we have expanded the known diversity of the genus Pseudoblepharisma by discovering new non photosymbiotic species and confidently establishing the sister relationship between the genera Pseudoblepharisma and Spirostomum in the family Spirostomidae. Our genome-based predictions on the physiology of photosymbiotic Pseudoblepharisma species represent the basis for future experimental work on the identity of the metabolites that are exchanged among symbiotic partners. -- biorxiv.org

Away Teams & Field Reports, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Habitable Zones, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Microbiology & Virology, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Sample Return, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Deep-Sea Discovery Could Help Find Alien Life

by Keith CowingAugust 1, 2024August 1, 2024

From left, Johns Hopkins APL engineers Tyler Radomsky and Felipe Ruiz install a rotor on the Dragonfly test model at the Transonic Dynamics Tunnel at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia. NASA

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics

Astrochemistry: Unexpected Behavior In Dimers of CO2 Molecules After Ionization

by Keith CowingAugust 1, 2024August 1, 2024

Color phase curves (CPCs) for the sum of planets ’b’ and ’d’ in the Proxima Centauri system. The CPC is the ratio of the flux in the 21 µm to 12.8 µm JWST/MIRI filters, normalized to the stellar flux, with the median value subtracted from the normalized ratio. The CPCs are the sum of both planets, and are shown here for the 2027 visibility period for JWST (lighter when not visible). Two cases are shown: using a hot rock model for ’b’, and a GCM (see text). Planet ’d’ is modeled as a hot rock in both cases.

Away Teams & Field Reports, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Microbiology & Virology, Sample Return

New Groups Of Methane-producing Organisms Identified In Yellowstone National Park

by Keith CowingAugust 1, 2024September 18, 2025

A self-portrait of NASA’s Curiosity rover taken on June 15, 2018, when a Martian dust storm had reduced sunlight and visibility at the rover’s location in Gale Crater. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Habitable Zones, Magnetic Fields, Electromagnetism, bioelectricity,, Titan, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Schumann Resonances As A Tool To Constrain The Depth Of Titan’s Buried Water Ocean

by Keith CowingAugust 1, 2024August 1, 2024