A two-week journey to Mars: Investigating thiophene-bearing quinones in chemolithoautotrophic archaea - from protocol to practice

Kurzfassung

Extracting organic materials from microorganisms grown on mineral substrates poses a significant challenge because of the close interactions between cells and minerals. An improved extraction protocol by Gfellner et al. (2025) enabled access to the metabolome of the chemolithoautotrophic, extremely thermoacidophilic archaeon Metallopshaera sedula grown on mineral pyrite (FeS2) using mass spectrometry-based metabolomics. However, further testing of this protocol was required to evaluate its feasibility in other organisms grown on different mineral substrates. Therefore, another chemolithoautotrophic extremophilic archaeon, Acidianus manzaensis, was cultivated on Mars basalt analog material (ESA01-E) according to the protocol described by Kölbl et al. (2020). The improved extraction protocol was effectively applied, and the durability of A. manzaensis was tested in a one-month desiccation experiment. To mimic an astrobiological context, A. manzaensis was exposed for two weeks to Mars-like conditions in the Mars Simulation Facility of the Planetary Analogue Simulation Laboratory (PASLAB) at the German Aerospace Center in Berlin (Lorek and Koncz, 2013; Lorenz et al., 2023). Successful recultivation of exposed cell-mineral mixtures demonstrated their survival under the following conditions: extreme temperature fluctuations in diurnal cycles (16h daylight/8h night) ranging from -50 to +15 °C, exposure to UV radiation (200–2200), Martian atmosphere (96% CO2), and pressure (8 mbar). After recultivation of exposed cells, cell survival was observed, and thiophene-bearing quinones were analyzed to investigate potential molecular alterations. [1] Gfellner, S. V., Colas, C., Gabant, G., Groninga, J., Cadene, M., & Milojevic, T. (2025). Frontiers in Microbiology, 15, 1473270. [2] Kölbl, D., Blazevic, A., Albu, M., Fasching, C., & Milojevic, T. (2020). Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences, 7, 41. [3] Lorek, A., and Koncz, A. (2013). Habitability of Other Planets and Satellites, 145–162. [4] Lorenz, C., Bianchi, E., Poggiali, G., Alemanno, G., Benesperi, R., Brucato, J. R., Garland, S., Helbert, J., Loppi, S., Lorek, A., Maturilli, A., Papini, A., De Vera, J-P., & Baqué, M. (2023). Scientific Reports, 13, 4893.