D. rad Bacteria: Candidate Astronauts (090830)

[Star*Hopper]

wwo....what an interesting astroimage.

but can you teach it to fetch?

[neufer]

wwo....what an interesting astroimage.

but can you teach it to fetch?

No, but you can teach it sing:

<<Deinococcus radiodurans is an extremophilic bacterium, one of the most radioresistant organisms known. D. radiodurans is capable of withstanding an instantaneous dose of up to 5,000 Gy of ionizing radiation with no loss of viability. Scanning electron microscopy analysis has shown that DNA in D. radiodurans is organized into tightly packed toroids, which may facilitate DNA repair. It can survive cold, dehydration, vacuum, and acid, and is therefore known as a polyextremophile and has been listed as the world's toughest bacterium in The Guinness Book Of World Records.

Deinococcus has been genetically engineered for use in bioremediation to consume and digest solvents and heavy metals, even in a highly radioactive site. For example, the bacterial mercuric reductase gene has been cloned from Escherichia coli into Deinococcus to detoxify the ionic mercury residue frequently found in radioactive waste generated from nuclear weapons manufacture. Those researchers developed a strain of Deinococcus that could detoxify both mercury and toluene in mixed radioactive wastes. In 2003, U.S. scientists demonstrated that D. radiodurans could be used as a means of information storage that might survive a nuclear catastrophe. They translated the song It's a Small World into a series of DNA segments 150 base pairs long, inserted these into the bacteria, and were able to retrieve them without errors 100 bacterial generations later.

The name Deinococcus radiodurans derives from the Greek deino and kokkos meaning "marvelous berry" and the Latin radius and durare meaning "radiation surviving". The species was formerly also called Micrococcus radiodurans and Deinobacter radiodurans. As a consequence of its hardiness, it has been nicknamed "Conan the Bacterium", a play on "Conan the Barbarian".

A persistent question regarding D. radiodurans is how such a high degree of radioresistance could evolve. Valerie Mattimore and John R. Battista of Louisiana State University have suggested that the radioresistance of D. radiodurans is simply a side-effect of a mechanism for dealing with prolonged cellular desiccation (dryness). A team of Russian and American scientists proposed that the radioresistance of D. radiodurans had a Martian origin. Evolution of the microorganism could have taken place on the Martian surface until it was delivered to Earth on a meteorite. However, apart from its resistance to radiation, Deinococcus is genetically and biochemically quite similar to other terrestrial life forms, arguing against an extraterrestrial origin.>>

[Star*Hopper]

Yeeahhhhhhhhh.... One minute it's "A Small World", & next thing ya know, it's "Kill Sarah Conner".

*egads*
~*

[neufer]

Explanation: Recent evidence holds that methane (CH4) is second only to carbon dioxide (CO2) in creating a warming greenhouse effect but is easier to control. Atmospheric methane has doubled over the past 200 years, and its smothering potency is over 20 times that of CO2. Methane may even be responsible for a sudden warming of the Earth by seven degrees Celsius about 55 million years ago. As most methane is produced biologically, the gas is sometimes associated with bathroom humor. The largest abundance released by the US, however, is created when anaerobic bacteria break down carbon-based garbage in landfills. Therefore, a more effective way to help our planet than trying to restrict your own methane emissions would be to encourage efficient landfill gas management.

Explanation: There are more bacteriophages on Earth than any other life-like form. These small viruses are not clearly a form of life, since when not attached to bacteria they are completely dormant. Bacteriophages attack and eat bacteria and have likely been doing so for over 3 billion years ago. Although initially discovered early last century, the tremendous abundance of phages was realized more recently when it was found that a single drop of common seawater typically contains millions of them. Extrapolating, phages are likely to be at least a billion billion (sic) times more numerous than humans. Pictured above is an electron micrograph of over a dozen bacteriophages attached to a single bacterium. Phages are very small -- it would take about a million of them laid end-to-end to span even one millimeter. The ability to kill bacteria makes phages a potential ally against bacteria that cause human disease, although bacteriophages are not yet well enough understood to be in wide spread medical use.

[bystander]

I personally enjoy these loosely interpreted "astronomy" pictures. And given the choice between last year's random NGC I'd pick bacteria or roll clouds hands down. Good thing APOD isn't a democracy because if this thread is any indication then I'm in the minority.

I agree...however, one should point out that
"D. rad Bacteria: Candidate Astronauts" has survived 3 APODs already:

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060122.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040425.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020930.html

Did it really survive??? Looking at the pictures, the colony hasn't grown since 2002! or is it just in stasis?

[DavidLeodis]

Perhaps the D. rad is slowing evoloving in that petri dish until it has evolved to eat its way out! Well it has been engineered to deal with merecury so a bit of plastic should be no problem!

[neufer]

Perhaps the D. rad is slowing evolving in that petri dish until it has evolved to eat its way out!
Well it has been engineered to deal with mercury so a bit of plastic should be no problem!

<<It is possible that bacteria will eventually develop the ability to degrade plastics. This has already happened with nylon: two types of nylon eating bacteria, Flavobacteria and Pseudomonas, were found in 1975 to possess enzymes (nylonase) capable of breaking down nylon. While not a solution to the disposal problem, it is likely that bacteria will evolve the ability to use other synthetic plastics as well.

In 2008, a 16-year-old boy reportedly isolated two plastic-consuming bacteria.

The latter possibility was in fact the subject of a cautionary novel by Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis (screenwriter), the creators of the Cybermen, re-using the plot of the first episode of their Doomwatch series. The novel, Mutant 59: The Plastic Eater, written in 1971, is the story of what could happen if a bacterium were to evolve—or be artificially cultured—to eat plastics, and be let loose in a major city.>>

Explanation: Powering the nebular glow are the young, hot stars of a newly formed cluster, Berkeley 59.

<<The Berkeley Farmers’ Markets are just saying no to all plastic bags and packaging from their three weekly markets. Polyethylene (plastic) bags can take from 400 to 1,000 years to break down, and their chemicals remain for years after that. Plastic bags are made from crude oil, natural gas and other petrochemical derivatives. It takes 12 million barrels of oil to make the 100 billion plastic bags Americans use annually. Plastic bags often end up blowing down the street, getting caught in gutters, and just generally creating a pollution nuisance. In 2007, neighboring San Francisco became the first major U.S. city to ban plastic grocery bags.>>

• • Mutant 59: The Plastic Eater
  <<In the shaft leading to the [ventilation] grille a mindless, groping mass of malodorous corruption was thrusting its way silently towards the surface. Buoyed up by bubbling foam it steadily rose. Single units in an obscene abrogation of normal order divided and made two. Two became four and four, eight. Endlessly supplied with food, each unit absorbed nutrient and in a soft, ancient certainty fulfilled its only purpose - to multiply, to extend and to multiply...
  
  In the Coburg Street control room of the London Underground system, there was a full emergency... In a dozen tunnels, trains ground down to a halt. Hordes of terrified commuters made their way anxiously along dark, musty tunnels to the lights and safety of the next station. There were minor explosions, fires, and the failure of a million wires and cables. As the dissolution of plastic proceeded and accelerated in rate, the elegant order of the system gradually turned into complete chaos.
  
  On the surface, in the freezing December air, the smell of the rotting plastic began to hang permanently in the air. A cloying, wet, rotting smell similar to the smell of long-dead flesh. It filled streets and homes, basements and factories. Traffic lights failed, causing irresolvable jams.... The breakdown of plastic spread into Broadcasting House.... A gas main with polypropylene seals on its pressure regulators erupted into flame.... Plastic cold-water pipes softened, ballooned, and burst, flooding into shops, homes, and restaurants.
  
  Slowly and inexorably, the rate of dissolution increased; failures occurred in increasing succession until, within forty-eight hours, the centre of London had become a freezing chaos without light, heat, or communication.">>