Application of a new constant high pressure incubation system (DeepIsoBUG) to obtain and characterise novel, high pressure, deep biosphere prokaryotes

应用新型恒定高压培养系统 (DeepIsoBUG) 获得并表征新型高压深层生物圈原核生物

• 批准号: NE/D004950/1
• 负责人: Ronald Parkes
• 金额: $ 36.26万
• 依托单位: CARDIFF UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2006 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FD004950%2F1
• 关键词: Application; new; constant; pressure; incubation; Application; new; constant; pressure; incubation

Recently, huge numbers of bacteria kilometres deep in the Earth have been discovered. These bacteria may represent over 50% of all life on Earth. But we know almost nothing about these bacteria as we can only grow a tiny fraction of them in the laboratory for study. Deep ocean sediments contain most of these 'deep biosphere' bacteria and here pressures are enormous over 300 times that at the surface. Up till now the only way to study them was by bringing samples to the surface and trying to study them at atmospheric pressure, which might kill the vast majority of them. We have developed a system which enables bacteria to be consistently grown and studied under high pressure. This can be used with a new pressure coring and handling system so that bacteria are never depressurised which should allow deep bacteria not previously seen to be studied. We will investigate these bacteria to find out what type they are, how they survive in their extreme (high pressure, low energy and zero oxygen) environment and how they might influence processes in deep sediments and rocks which were previously thought to be geological environments devoid of life. These deep sediments can be tens of millions of years old and may contain ancient bacteria. They may even be an environment where life on Earth might have started. So understanding these bacteria will not only tell us about life on Earth it might also tell us more about how life began.

最近，已经发现了大量的细菌公里。这些细菌可能占地球上所有生命的50％以上。但是我们几乎对这些细菌一无所知，因为我们只能在实验室中种植其中的一小部分。深海沉积物中包含大多数“深生物圈”细菌，在这里，压力在表面上是巨大的300倍。到现在为止，研究它们的唯一方法是将样品带到表面并试图在大气压力下研究它们，这可能会杀死其中的绝大多数。我们已经开发了一个系统，该系统使细菌能够在高压下始终如一地生长和研究。这可以与新的压力和处理系统一起使用，因此永远不会抑制细菌，这应该允许以前没有研究深细菌。我们将研究这些细菌，以找出它们是什么类型，它们如何在极端（高压，低能量和零氧）环境中生存，以及它们如何影响深层沉积物和岩石的过程，这些深层和岩石以前被认为是没有生命的地质环境。这些深层沉积物可以是数千万年的历史，可能含有古老的细菌。它们甚至可能是地球上生活的环境。因此，了解这些细菌不仅会告诉我们地球上的生命，还可能告诉我们更多有关生活如何开始的信息。