Arsenic v Phosphorous based life form discovered

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Krikkitone
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Arsenic v Phosphorous based life form discovered

#1 Post by Krikkitone »

THey discovered a species of bacteria in Mono Lake, that can use Arsenic instead of Phosphorous in its DNA

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early ... ce.1197258
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/de ... _Life.html

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pd
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Re: Arsenic v Phosphorous based life form discovered

#2 Post by pd »

Seen it earlier, it's quite amazing.

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EmP
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Re: Arsenic v Phosphorous based life form discovered

#3 Post by EmP »

What I've read somewhere, they actually forced bacteria to use arsenic. As in, there has to be lack of phosphorus before a bacteria starts using arsenic, not that it is perfectly natural for it be made up of arsenic. Anyway, it makes you wonder when will they stumble upon a more exotic lifeform, ie. one that uses methane as medium instead water.

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eleazar
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Re: Arsenic v Phosphorous based life form discovered

#4 Post by eleazar »

Yeah, this is interesting, though apparently they didn't demonstrate that the bacteria doesn't need any phosphorous, just that it can at least to some degree, replace phosphorous with arsenic.

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Krikkitone
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Re: Arsenic v Phosphorous based life form discovered

#5 Post by Krikkitone »

eleazar wrote:Yeah, this is interesting, though apparently they didn't demonstrate that the bacteria doesn't need any phosphorous, just that it can at least to some degree, replace phosphorous with arsenic.
No, they actually grew it with no Phosphorous [how they found it]... (although it prefers the phosphorous, it doesn't need any of it)

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