Microbial fuel cells applied to the metabolically based detection of extraterrestrial life.

Since the 1970s, when the Viking spacecrafts carried out experiments to detect microbial metabolism on the surface of Mars, the search for nonspecific methods to detect life in situ has been one of the goals of astrobiology. It is usually required that a methodology detect life independently from it...

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Autores principales:	Abrevaya, X.C., Mauas, P.J., Cortón, E.
Formato:	JOUR
Materias:	article astrobiology bioenergy cytology electricity metabolism methodology microbiology microclimate Saccharomyces cerevisiae time Bioelectric Energy Sources Electricity Exobiology Extraterrestrial Environment Soil Microbiology Time Factors
Acceso en línea:	http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12110/paper_15578070_v10_n10_p965_Abrevaya
Aporte de:	Biblioteca Digital - Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales (UBA) de Universidad de Buenos Aires

id	todo:paper_15578070_v10_n10_p965_Abrevaya
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spelling	todo:paper_15578070_v10_n10_p965_Abrevaya2023-10-03T16:25:44Z Microbial fuel cells applied to the metabolically based detection of extraterrestrial life. Abrevaya, X.C. Mauas, P.J. Cortón, E. article astrobiology bioenergy cytology electricity metabolism methodology microbiology microclimate Saccharomyces cerevisiae time Bioelectric Energy Sources Electricity Exobiology Extraterrestrial Environment Saccharomyces cerevisiae Soil Microbiology Time Factors Since the 1970s, when the Viking spacecrafts carried out experiments to detect microbial metabolism on the surface of Mars, the search for nonspecific methods to detect life in situ has been one of the goals of astrobiology. It is usually required that a methodology detect life independently from its composition or form and that the chosen biological signature point to a feature common to all living systems, such as the presence of metabolism. In this paper, we evaluate the use of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) for the detection of microbial life in situ. MFCs are electrochemical devices originally developed as power electrical sources and can be described as fuel cells in which the anode is submerged in a medium that contains microorganisms. These microorganisms, as part of their metabolic process, oxidize organic material, releasing electrons that contribute to the electric current, which is therefore proportional to metabolic and other redox processes. We show that power and current density values measured in MFCs that use microorganism cultures or soil samples in the anode are much larger than those obtained with a medium free of microorganisms or sterilized soil samples, respectively. In particular, we found that this is true for extremophiles, which have been proposed as potential inhabitants of extraterrestrial environments. Therefore, our results show that MFCs have the potential to be used for in situ detection of microbial life. Fil:Abrevaya, X.C. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina. Fil:Mauas, P.J. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina. Fil:Cortón, E. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina. JOUR info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ar http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12110/paper_15578070_v10_n10_p965_Abrevaya
institution	Universidad de Buenos Aires
institution_str	I-28
repository_str	R-134
collection	Biblioteca Digital - Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales (UBA)
topic	article astrobiology bioenergy cytology electricity metabolism methodology microbiology microclimate Saccharomyces cerevisiae time Bioelectric Energy Sources Electricity Exobiology Extraterrestrial Environment Saccharomyces cerevisiae Soil Microbiology Time Factors
spellingShingle	article astrobiology bioenergy cytology electricity metabolism methodology microbiology microclimate Saccharomyces cerevisiae time Bioelectric Energy Sources Electricity Exobiology Extraterrestrial Environment Saccharomyces cerevisiae Soil Microbiology Time Factors Abrevaya, X.C. Mauas, P.J. Cortón, E. Microbial fuel cells applied to the metabolically based detection of extraterrestrial life.
topic_facet	article astrobiology bioenergy cytology electricity metabolism methodology microbiology microclimate Saccharomyces cerevisiae time Bioelectric Energy Sources Electricity Exobiology Extraterrestrial Environment Saccharomyces cerevisiae Soil Microbiology Time Factors
description	Since the 1970s, when the Viking spacecrafts carried out experiments to detect microbial metabolism on the surface of Mars, the search for nonspecific methods to detect life in situ has been one of the goals of astrobiology. It is usually required that a methodology detect life independently from its composition or form and that the chosen biological signature point to a feature common to all living systems, such as the presence of metabolism. In this paper, we evaluate the use of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) for the detection of microbial life in situ. MFCs are electrochemical devices originally developed as power electrical sources and can be described as fuel cells in which the anode is submerged in a medium that contains microorganisms. These microorganisms, as part of their metabolic process, oxidize organic material, releasing electrons that contribute to the electric current, which is therefore proportional to metabolic and other redox processes. We show that power and current density values measured in MFCs that use microorganism cultures or soil samples in the anode are much larger than those obtained with a medium free of microorganisms or sterilized soil samples, respectively. In particular, we found that this is true for extremophiles, which have been proposed as potential inhabitants of extraterrestrial environments. Therefore, our results show that MFCs have the potential to be used for in situ detection of microbial life.
format	JOUR
author	Abrevaya, X.C. Mauas, P.J. Cortón, E.
author_facet	Abrevaya, X.C. Mauas, P.J. Cortón, E.
author_sort	Abrevaya, X.C.
title	Microbial fuel cells applied to the metabolically based detection of extraterrestrial life.
title_short	Microbial fuel cells applied to the metabolically based detection of extraterrestrial life.
title_full	Microbial fuel cells applied to the metabolically based detection of extraterrestrial life.
title_fullStr	Microbial fuel cells applied to the metabolically based detection of extraterrestrial life.
title_full_unstemmed	Microbial fuel cells applied to the metabolically based detection of extraterrestrial life.
title_sort	microbial fuel cells applied to the metabolically based detection of extraterrestrial life.
url	http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12110/paper_15578070_v10_n10_p965_Abrevaya
work_keys_str_mv	AT abrevayaxc microbialfuelcellsappliedtothemetabolicallybaseddetectionofextraterrestriallife AT mauaspj microbialfuelcellsappliedtothemetabolicallybaseddetectionofextraterrestriallife AT cortone microbialfuelcellsappliedtothemetabolicallybaseddetectionofextraterrestriallife
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Microbial fuel cells applied to the metabolically based detection of extraterrestrial life.

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