{"id":38946,"date":"2025-08-17T09:55:48","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T07:55:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/karmaka.de\/?p=38946"},"modified":"2025-08-17T09:55:49","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T07:55:49","slug":"exploring-organic-compound-preservation-through-long-term-in-situ-experiments-in-the-atacama-desert-and-the-relevance-for-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/karmaka.de\/?p=38946","title":{"rendered":"Exploring organic compound preservation through long-term in situ experiments in the Atacama desert and the relevance for Mars<span class=\"badge-status\" style=\"background:#787878\">OPEN ACCESS<\/span>&nbsp;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Felix Leo Arens, Jenny Uhl, Philippe Schmitt-Kopplin, Cornelia Karger, Kai Mangelsdorf, Christof Sager, Alessandro Airo, Bernardita Valenzuela, Pedro Zamorano &amp; Dirk Schulze-Makuch<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Scientific Reports, Volume 15, article number 29957, Published: 15 August 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1038\/s41598-025-16197-w\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>LINK (OPEN ACCESS)<\/strong><\/a><br><a href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/content\/pdf\/10.1038\/s41598-025-16197-w.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>PDF (OPEN ACCESS)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"justify-text\">&#8220;The preservation of organic compounds under extreme environmental conditions remains a critical challenge for both terrestrial ecology applications on Earth and astrobiology. In a novel long-term field experiment over 8 months, we exposed biomolecules and a model organism to natural hyperarid conditions of the Atacama Desert, one of the best Mars analog environments. We used custom-designed sample plates for long-term exposure to simulate environmental stresses that biomolecules are exposed naturally in a hyperarid environment. The multiple stressors included extreme temperature fluctuations, associated humidity changes, and intense solar irradiation. Our field experiment complements and extends the insights obtained from previously conducted short-term laboratory experiments. To investigate biomolecule stability, we embedded adenosine triphosphate (ATP), chlorophyll-a, and the cyanobacterium Chrooccoccidiopsis in various Mars-relevant sediments with addition of chloride and perchlorate. Our findings, which include the rapid degradation of these biomolecules, the detection of more stable degradation products, and the identification of non-enzymatic degradation pathways, reveal the critical influence of substrate and salt types on biomolecule stability. Valuable insights into biosignature preservation under extreme terrestrial conditions and a better understanding of organic signal interpretations were gained, which will provide critical insights for future Mars missions, especially when searching for past or present life.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Felix Leo Arens, Jenny Uhl, Philippe Schmitt-Kopplin, Cornelia Karger, Kai Mangelsdorf, Christof Sager, Alessandro Airo, Bernardita Valenzuela, Pedro Zamorano &amp; Dirk Schulze-Makuch Scientific Reports, Volume 15, article number 29957, Published: 15 August 2025 LINK (OPEN&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122,576],"tags":[4540,1135,1858,232,1989,4253],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karmaka.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38946"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karmaka.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karmaka.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karmaka.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karmaka.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38946"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/karmaka.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38947,"href":"https:\/\/karmaka.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38946\/revisions\/38947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karmaka.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karmaka.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karmaka.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}