Life in arsenic

2010/12/03 Aulestiarte Lete, Izaro - Elhuyar Zientziaren Komunikazioa

• Mikrobiologia

There is a bacterium capable of living and growing using arsenic. It has been discovered by a team of researchers from NASA's Astrobiology Institute on California's salty and toxic Mono Lake. No other similar background is known.

Arsenic is really toxic to living things because it alters metabolic mechanisms, but its chemical behavior is similar to phosphate. According to researchers, the discovered microorganism of the Halomonadaceae family uses arsenic to live and grow instead of conventional phosphate.

The bacteria can replace phosphorus with arsenic, a process in which arsenic can even be incorporated into the DNA of the bacteria.

Image courtesy of: Science / AASS.