Super-hardy microbes suggest life may exist elsewhere

The research on the South Pole microbes, which was supported by NSF, was published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

Evidence of the tough little organisms shows them to be active even in the extreme conditions of the South Pole. A similar species lives elsewhere in Antarctica, but the microbes at the pole seems to have managed to adapt themselves to the scarcity of liquid water and ultraviolet radiation from the sun there.

quot;While we expected to find some bacteria in the South Poles now, we were surprised that they were metabolically active and synthesizing DNA and protein at local ambient temperatures of 10.4 degrees to 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit minus 12 to minus 17 Celsius,quot; Edward Carpenter of the State University of New York at Stony Brook said in the statement.

This may be significant in light of a report last month that there was evidence that liquid water may have flowed recently on Mars. Liquid water has generally been seen as a prerequisite for Earth-type life, but astronomers have theorised that Mars, Earth8217;s next-door neighbour, once was warm and wet but now is extremely cold and dry, and therefore inhospitable to life.

But the South Pole microbes may have enzymes and membranesthat help them cope with their arid, frigid environment, NSF said.