Arsenic bacteria

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04-28-24 09:48 AM

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Ailure

Posted on 12-03-10 12:44 AM

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News from NASA directly, apparently a bacteria found in Mono Lake California is able to use arsenic in the place of Phosphor.

I theorized for a moment that the arsenic bacterium would be totally unrelated to other life when I heard about it on Slashdot, but seeing how they can apparently live of phosphor as well... apparently not.

No ET, but it's defiantly a nobel prize worthy find.

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blackhole89

Posted on 12-03-10 01:27 AM

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What I wonder is to what degree the incompatibility between them and "normal" organisms goes - would a piece of DNA [if you can even still call it that] that is based on arsenic work in another organism's cell at all, and if it would, would the cell be capable of long-term survival or would arsenic fallout from decomposition of single strands destroy it?

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Ailure

Posted on 12-03-10 01:34 AM

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The bacteria probably have some kind of mechanism that counters the DNA destroying nature of arsenic. You can use arsenic in the place of phosphor, it's just not as "strong" (which is why it causes DNA to fall apart). It seemed to be one of those things the scientists didn't know for sure yet.

They honestly didn't give too much insight into the actual structure of the arsenic DNA, or what makes them hold the arsenic better together. Then again, judging the conference, the scientists dosen't seem to be sure of the exact mechanics yet either so we find out with time. :/

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