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Russia finds 'new bacteria' in Antarctic lake - 0 views

phys.org/...a-bacteria-antarctic-lake.html

scibyte85 SubglacialLake

shared by Mars Base on 08 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • Russian scientists believe they have found a wholly new type of bacteria in the mysterious subglacial Lake Vostok in Antarctica
  • The samples obtained from the underground lake in May 2012 contained a bacteria which bore no resemblance to existing type
  • "After putting aside all possible elements of contamination, DNA was found that did not coincide with any of the well-known types in the global database,"
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • discovery comes from samples collected in an expedition in 2012 where a Russian team drilled down to the surface of Lake Vosto
  • believed to have been covered by ice for more than a million years but has kept its liquid state.
  • Lake Vostok is the largest subglacial lake in Antarctica
  • The Russian team last year drilled almost four kilometres (2.34 miles) to reach the lake and take the samples.
  • t the interest surrounded one particular form of bacteria whose DNA was less than 86 percent similar to previously existing forms.
  • "In terms of work with DNA this is basically zero. A level of 90 percent usually means that the organism is unknown."
  • not even possible to find the genetic descendants of the bacteria.
  • "If this had been found on Mars everyone would have undoubtedly said there is life on Mars. But this is bacteria from Earth."
  • new samples of water would be taken from Lake Vostok during a new expedition in May.
  • "If we manage to find the same group of organisms in this water we can say for sure that we have found new life on Earth that exists in no database,"
  • Exploring environments such as Lake Vostok allows scientists to discover what life forms can exist in the most extreme conditions
  • whether life could exist on some other bodies in the solar system.
  • Saturn's moon Enceladus and the Jupiter moon Europa as they are believed to have oceans, or large lakes, beneath their icy shells.
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