They find in Siberia the sought-after bacteria capable of living on Mars

Microbiologists from Tomsk State University (TSU) found in groundwater in Siberia the bacterium that survives without light or oxygen and that is a candidate for survival on Mars.

Many countries have been trying to find the bacterium, Desulforudis audaxviator, for more than 10 years because of the microorganism’s ability to obtain energy in the absence of oxygen and in total darkness. Theoretically it can prove that life on another planet is possible, for example on Mars’, remarked the university, quoted by sputniknews.

Olga Karnachuk, head of TSU’s department of plant physiology and biotechnology, said that more than 10 years ago U.S. researchers found the bacteria’s DNA 2.8 kilometers deep in a gold mine in South Africa, but the microorganism itself was not found.

Until recently, life in these conditions was considered impossible because without light, photosynthesis, a fundamental process in all food chains, does not take place. But it turned out that this hypothesis was wrong’, Karnachuk emphasised.

Russian researchers have been the first to discover the Desulforudis audaxviator in groundwater from a thermal spring located in the Siberian forests north of the city of Tomsk.

Desulforudis audaxviator is one of the oldest bacteria inhabiting our planet and it is characterized by surviving without oxygen and obtaining energy from sulfates and oxidation of hydrogen or organic compounds.

(Taken from RHC in Spanish)

Written by Radio Grito de Baire