A remote and hostile lake in Argentina may give clues about how life began on Earth and what life forms might subsist on other planets like Mars.
Researchers foundmillions of “superbugs” growing inside Diamond Lake, located in the center of a giant volcanic crater locatedmore than 4,600 meters above sea leveland who has verylittle oxygen. The habitat of these bacteria issimilar to early Earth, before organisms lived and breathed in a protective atmosphere with oxygen. In addition, the extreme conditions they face, includinghigh levels of arsenic(20,000 times above the level considered safe for drinking water), could also shed a light on possible forms of life outside our planet. To make matters worse, the lake temperature is often below zero, but sincewater is five times saltier than sea water, the ice never forms. And in these waters any form of life also has to ssurviving ultraviolet (UV) light, which is about 40% more intense than in the lowlands.
The“polyextremophilic” bacteriathat survive in this lagoon? hide the secret of resistance mechanisms to various extreme conditions, which can have many biotechnological applications, such as the development of new antioxidants or enzymes ?, explained María Eugenia Farías, a microbiologist who is part of the research team. “What we have here is a series of extreme conditions all together and that makes it unique in the world,” says Farías.
