Life Detection on Icy Moons Using Flow Cytometry and Intrinsically Fluorescent Biomolecules.
Astrobiology
; 24(7): 710-720, 2024 Jul.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-39023355
ABSTRACT
In a previous experiment, we demonstrated the capability of flow cytometry as a potential life detection technology for icy moons using exogenous fluorescent stains (Wallace et al., 2023). In this companion experiment, we demonstrated the capability of flow cytometry to detect life using intrinsically fluorescent biomolecules in addition to exogenous stains. We used a method similar to our previous work to positively identify six classes of intrinsically fluorescent biomolecules flavins, carotenoids, chlorophyll, tryptophan, NAD+, and NAD(P)H. We demonstrated the effectiveness of this method with six known organisms and known abiotic material and showed that the cytometer is easily able to distinguish the known organisms and the known abiotic material by using the intrinsic fluorescence of these six biomolecules. To simulate a life detection experiment on an icy moon lander, we used six natural samples with unknown biotic and abiotic content. We showed that flow cytometry can identify all six intrinsically fluorescent biomolecules and can separate the biotic material from the known abiotic material on scatter plots. The use of intrinsically fluorescent biomolecules in addition to exogenous stains will potentially cast a wider net for life detection on icy moons using flow cytometry.
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Citometría de Flujo
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Astrobiology
Asunto de la revista:
BIOLOGIA
Año:
2024
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Estados Unidos
Pais de publicación:
Estados Unidos