Whatever goes in the name of science is a matter of conjecture, not a proof, never a certainty. Famous British scientific journal, Nature, banned me forever. The reason is obvious. They are so scared of my comments. I am not clear as to what they consder as a valid comment. Another stupid joke?
I am not a sci-Fi guy. I read just enough to get my intellectual need satiated and leave those so called inventors and discoverers alone. I don't want to start something, nasty, obviously and get thrown out in the halls of academia.
My degree requirement was such that I had to take basic courses in science. I could just get a passing grade, if I crammed few hours before the tests and a final. I did not do such a silly science. I did my best. I guess, that does not make me a scientist. Oh, well. You can't win all the time. Can you?
...and I am Sid Harth@webworldismyoyster.com
Science 3 June 2011:
Vol. 332 no. 6034 pp. 1163-1166
DOI: 10.1126/science.1197258
A Bacterium That Can Grow by Using Arsenic Instead of Phosphorus
- Felisa Wolfe-Simon1,2,*,
- Jodi Switzer Blum2,
- Thomas R. Kulp2,
- Gwyneth W. Gordon3,
- Shelley E. Hoeft2,
- Jennifer Pett-Ridge4,
- John F. Stolz5,
- Samuel M. Webb6,
- Peter K. Weber4,
- Paul C. W. Davies1,7,
- Ariel D. Anbar1,3,8, and
- Ronald S. Oremland2
+ Author Affiliations
- 1NASA Astrobiology Institute, USA.
- 2U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.
- 3School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA.
- 4Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94551, USA.
- 5Department of Biological Sciences, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA 15282, USA.
- 6Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.
- 7BEYOND: Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA.
- 8Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA.
- *↵To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: felisawolfesimon@gmail.com
Abstract
Life is mostly composed of the elements carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur, and phosphorus. Although these six elements make up nucleic acids, proteins, and lipids and thus the bulk of living matter, it is theoretically possible that some other elements in the periodic table could serve the same functions. Here, we describe a bacterium, strain GFAJ-1 of the Halomonadaceae, isolated from Mono Lake, California, that is able to substitute arsenic for phosphorus to sustain its growth. Our data show evidence for arsenate in macromolecules that normally contain phosphate, most notably nucleic acids and proteins. Exchange of one of the major bio-elements may have profound evolutionary and geochemical importance.
Biological dependence on the six major nutrient elements carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur, and phosphorus (P) is complemented by a selected array of other elements, usually metals or metalloids present in trace quantities that serve critical cellular functions, such as enzyme co-factors (1). There are many cases of these trace elements substituting for one another. A few examples include the substitution of tungsten for molybdenum and cadmium for zinc in some enzyme families (2, 3) and copper for iron as an oxygen-carrier in some arthropods and mollusks (4). In these examples and others, the trace elements that interchange share chemical similarities that facilitate the swap. However, there are no prior reports of substitutions for any of the six major elements essential for life. Here, we present evidence that arsenic can substitute for phosphorus in the biomolecules of a naturally occurring bacterium.
Arsenic (As) is a chemical analog of P, which lies directly below P on the periodic table. Arsenic possesses a similar atomic radius, as well as near identical electronegativity to P (5). The most common form of P in biology is phosphate (PO43–), which behaves similarly to arsenate (AsO43–) over the range of biologically relevant pH and redox gradients (6). The physicochemical similarity between AsO43– and PO43– contributes to the biological toxicity of AsO43– because metabolic pathways intended for PO43– cannot distinguish between the two molecules (7) and AsO43– may be incorporated into some early steps in the pathways [(6) and references therein]. However, it is thought that downstream metabolic processes are generally not compatible with As-incorporating molecules because of differences in the reactivities of P and As compounds (8). These downstream biochemical pathways may require the more chemically stable P-based metabolites; the lifetimes of more easily hydrolyzed As-bearing analogs are thought to be too short. However, given the similarities of As and P—and by analogy with trace element substitutions—we hypothesized that AsO43– could specifically substitute for PO43– in an organism possessing mechanisms to cope with the inherent instability of AsO43– compounds (6). Here, we experimentally tested this hypothesis by using AsO43–, combined with no added PO43–, to select for and isolate a microbe capable of accomplishing this substitution.
Geomicrobiology of GFAJ-1. Mono Lake, located in eastern California, is a hypersaline and alkaline water body with high dissolved arsenic concentrations [200 μM on average (9)]. We used lake sediments as inocula into an aerobic defined artificial medium at pH 9.8 (10, 11) containing 10 mM glucose, vitamins, and trace metals but no added PO43– or any additional complex organic supplements (such as yeast extract or peptone), with a regimen of increasing AsO43– additions initially spanning the range from 100 μM to 5 mM. These enrichments were taken through many decimal-dilution transfers, greatly reducing any potential carryover of autochthonous phosphorus (11). The background PO43– in the medium was 3.1 (± 0.3) μM on average, with or without added AsO43–, coming from trace impurities in the major salts (table S1) (11). The sixth transfer of the 5 mM AsO43– (no added PO43–) condition was closely monitored and demonstrated an approximate growth rate (μ) of 0.1 day−1. After 10−7 dilutions, we used the 5 mM AsO43– enrichment to inoculate an agar plate that contained the same chemical composition as the artificial medium. An isolated colony was picked from the agar plates and reintroduced into an artificial liquid medium with no added PO43–, where we then progressively increased the AsO43– concentration to determine the optimal level for growth. Currently, this isolate—strain GFAJ-1 identified by 16S ribosomal RNA sequence phylogeny as a member of the Halomonadaceae family of Gammaproteobacteria (fig. S1) (11)—is maintained aerobically with 40 mM AsO43–, 10 mM glucose, and no added PO43– (+As/–P condition). Members of this family have been previously shown to accumulate intracellular As (12).
GFAJ-1 grew at an average μmax of 0.53 day−1 under +As/–P, increasing by over 20-fold in cell numbers after 6 days. It also grew faster and more extensively with the addition of 1.5 mM PO43– (–As/+P, μmax of 0.86 day−1) (Fig. 1, A and B). However, when neither AsO43– nor PO43– was added no growth was observed (Fig. 1, A and B). We include both optical density and direct cell counts to unambiguously demonstrate growth using two independent methods. Cells grown under +As/–P were oblong and approximately 2 by 1 μm when imaged by means of scanning electron microscopy (Fig. 1C) (11). When grown under +As/–P conditions, GFAJ-1 cells had more than 1.5-fold greater intracellular volume (≈2.5 ± 0.4 μm3) as compared with that of –As/+P (≈1.5 ± 0.5 μm3) (Fig. 1D) (11). Transmission electron microscopy revealed large vacuole-like regions in +As/–P–grown cells that may account for this increase in size (Fig. 1E). These experiments demonstrated AsO43–-dependent growth, morphological differences in GFAJ-1 driven by AsO43– in the growth medium, and that the level of PO43– impurities in the medium was insufficient to elicit growth in the control (–As/–P).
Growth and electron microscopy of strain GFAJ-1. (A and B) Growth curves of GFAJ-1 grown on the defined synthetic medium amended with either 1.5 mM PO43– (solid circles), 40 mM AsO43– (solid squares), or neither PO43– nor AsO43– (open triangles). Cell growth was monitored both by an increase in (A) optical density and (B) cell numbers of the cultures. Symbols represent the mean ± SD of (A) n = 6 experimental and n = 2 controls and (B) n = 3 experimental and n = 1 control. This was a single experiment with six replicates; however, material was conserved to extend the duration of the experiment to allow material for cell-counting samples. (C and D) Scanning electron micrographs of strain GFAJ-1 under two conditions, (C) +As/–P and (D) –As/+P. (E) Transmission electron micrography of +As/–P GFAJ-1 showed internal vacuole-like structures. Scale bars are as indicated in the figure (11).
Cellular stoichiometry and elemental distribution. To determine whether GFAJ-1 was taking up AsO43– from the medium, we measured the intracellular As content by means of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) (11). In +As/–P–grown cells, the mean intracellular As was 0.19 ± 0.25% by dry weight (Table 1), whereas the cells contained only 0.019 +/– 0.009 P by dry weight. This P was presumably scavenged from trace PO43– impurities in the reagents and not likely due to carryover, given our enrichment and isolation strategy (11). Moreover, when grown +As/–P this intracellular P is 96.5% less than our measured P values for this microbe when grown –As/+P and far below the 1 to 3% P by dry weight required to support growth in a typical heterotrophic bacterium (13). In contrast, GFAJ-1 cells grown under –As/+P conditions had a mean P content of 0.54 ± 0.21% by dry weight. There was variation in the total As content of the +As/–P cells, which is possibly a result of collection during stationary phase and losses during the repeated centrifugations and washing cycles because of the potential instability of the cellular structures given their swollen state (Fig. 2, C and E). In contrast, the integrity of the –As/+P cells appeared robust (Fig. 2D), and thus intracellular P measured for these cells probably reflects their content. However, the low total intracellular P in +As/–P cells was consistently far below the quantity needed to support growth, suggesting that these low values are correct despite variation in data from the +As/–P cells. Low intracellular P in concert with high intracellular As was further confirmed through high-resolution secondary ion mass spectrometry and x-ray analyses, as discussed below.
NanoSIMS analyses of GFAJ-1: extracted DNA and whole-cells elemental ratio maps. (A) Agarose gel loaded with DNA/RNA extracted from GFAJ-1 grown (lane 2) +As/–P and (lane 3) –As/+P as compared with (lane 1) a DNA standard. Genomic bands were excised as indicated and analyzed with NanoSIMS. Ion ratios of 75As–:12C– of excised gel bands are indicated below with 2σ error shown (all values multiplied by 10−6). (B to G) NanoSIMS images of whole GFAJ-1 cells grown either [(B), (D), and (F)] +As/–P or [(C), (E), and (G)] –As/+P. Shown are the ion ratios of [(B) and (C)] 75As–:12C–, [(D) and (E)] 31P–:12C–, and [(F) and (G)] secondary electron (SE). Ratios in (B) and (C) are multiplied by 10−4 and in (D) and (E) are multiplied by 10−3. The color bars indicate measured elemental ratios on a log scale as indicated. Length scale is as indicated on images; images contain equivalent pixel density (11).
We used radiolabeled 73AsO43– to obtain more specific information about the intracellular distribution of arsenic (11). We observed intracellular arsenic in protein, metabolite, lipid, and nucleic acid cellular fractions (Table 2). Stationary phase cells incorporated approximately 
of the total intracellular 73AsO43– label into nucleic acids but more than three quarters of the 73AsO43– into the phenol extracted “protein” fraction, with a small fraction going into lipids. We caution that the large “protein” fraction is probably an overestimate because this extraction step likely contains numerous small, non-proteinaceous metabolites as well. To determine whether this distribution pattern reflected a use of AsO43– in place of PO43– in DNA, we estimated the average sequenced bacterial genome to be 3.8 megabase pairs (Mbp), which would contain approximately 7.5 × 106 atoms or 12.5 × 10−18 moles of P. Assuming one complete genome per cell, this would equal 0.39 fg of P in the genome. Using ICP-MS, we measured about 9.0 fg P per cell in the –As/+P condition, which implies that only ~4% of total intracellular P is associated with the genome. Because these cells were harvested in stationary phase (11), the fraction of P associated with RNA is likely small (14). Hence, roughly 96% of P is presumably distributed between the “lipid” and “protein” fractions. If AsO43– is substituting for PO43– in DNA, then we can assume that roughly the same fraction of the total intracellular AsO43– would reflect a similar distribution to our estimated PO43– distribution. The distribution of intracellular 73AsO43– in our experiments was consistent with these estimates. If AsO43– is fulfilling the biological role of PO43–, then AsO43– should act in many analogous biochemical roles, including DNA, protein phosphorylation, small molecular weight metabolites [such as arsenylated analogs of the reduced form of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADH), adenosine triphosphate (ATP), and intermediates like glucose and acetyl–coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA)], and phospholipids.
Intracellular radiolabeled 73AsO4– arsenate distribution. All major cellular subfractions contained radiolabel after cell-washing procedures. Small molecular weight (s.m.w.) metabolites potentially include arsenylated analogs of ATP, NADH, acetyl-CoA, and others (11). SE is shown.
Our data suggested that As was present in a number of biomolecules, and in particular we sought to confirm the presence of As in the DNA fraction. Initially, we measured traces of As with ICP-MS analysis of extracted nucleic acid and protein/metabolite fractions from +As/–P–grown cells (table S1) (11). We then used high-resolution secondary ion mass spectrometry (NanoSIMS) to identify As in extracted, gel-isolated genomic DNA (Fig. 2A). These data showed that DNA from +As/–P cells had elevated As and low P relative to DNA from the –As/+P cells. NanoSIMS analysis of the DNA showed that the As:P ratio on an atom-per-atom basis was significantly higher in the +As/–P versus –As/+P grown cells (P = 0.02) (Fig. 2A and table S2) (11). Whether expressed as an ion ratio relative to C (75As–:12C–), (Fig. 2A) or 31P–:12C– (table S2) (11), or normalized by relative ion yield and expressed as a concentration in parts per billion (table S2) (11), we saw a similarly consistent trend, with significantly higher As in the +As/–P DNA (P = 0.03) and higher P in the –As/+P DNA (P = 0.0003). In both cases, the nonamended element concentration was equal or less than background levels. These measurements therefore specifically demonstrated that the purified DNA extracted from +As/–P cells contained As. Our NanoSIMS analyses, combined with the evidence for intracellular arsenic by ICP-MS and our radiolabeled 73AsO43– experiments, indicated that intracellular AsO43– was incorporated into key biomolecules, specifically DNA.
Characterization of the intracellular arsenic chemical environment. We next used synchrotron x-ray studies to determine the speciation and chemical environment of the intracellular arsenic (11). Micro–x-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (μXANES) of +As/–P–grown cells exhibited an absorption edge characteristic of As(V) coordination with no evidence of As(III) observed. Best fits of the micro-extended x-ray absorption fine structure (μEXAFS) spectra are listed in Table 3 and shown in Fig. 3. The first neighbor shell around the arsenic in +As/–P cells consisted of four oxygen ligands (Table 3) but had a second shell that is inconsistent with our As-Fe and As-S models, free AsO43– ions, or published spectra for organo-arsenicals (Fig. 3A) (15, 16). Although other arsenical compounds such as dimethylarsinate (DMA) also have As-O and As-C bonds, they have edge positions that are shifted to lower energy from the observed As(V) and have much shorter observed As-C bond distances (16). In contrast to the models, these As-O and As-C distances are consistent with that reported from the solved crystal structure of DNA for the analogous structural position of P relative to O and C atoms (Fig. 3A) (16, 17). Therefore, our x-ray data support the position of AsO43– in a similar configuration to PO43– in a DNA backbone or potentially other biomolecules as well. These data are also consistent with the presence of AsO43– in small-molecular-weight metabolites (for example, arsenylated analogs of NADH, ATP, glucose, and acetyl-CoA) as well as arsenylated proteins in which AsO43– would substitute for PO43– at serine, tyrosine, and threonine residues (table S3) (1, 11). Micro–x-ray fluorescence data (μXRF) further confirmed our ICP-MS measurements and showed low background P, which contrasted with regions of high arsenic correlated with high iron and zinc (Fig. 3B and fig. S2) (11). These latter two elements are routinely used as proxies for the presence of cellular material (such as C, N, and O) in our experiments because these light elements could not be detected with x-ray fluorescence under our nonvacuum conditions. However, to further support the distribution of arsenic with cellular material we used NanoSIMS to map cellular ion ratios of 75As–:12C– and 31P–:12C– (Fig. 2, B to G, and fig. S2) (11). These analyses confirmed, at a much finer resolution, that for the +As/–P condition the cells contain As with a low background of P (Fig. 2, B, D, and F). This is in contrast to the low As and higher P in –As/+P–grown cells (Fig. 2, C, E, and G). Because the x-ray absorption data provided information about the average coordination of arsenic, our data identified a mixture of compounds in the cells. These results indicated that these compounds are dominated by arsenic(V)-oxygen-carbon–coordinated structures, and thus the bonding environment we described is consistent with our NanoSIMS data (Fig. 2A) and can be attributed to DNA. These data show that As is in the +5 redox state and bound to O and distal C atoms within acceptable covalent bond lengths, identifying AsO43– assimilated into biomolecules within the cells in specifically relevant coordination.
Results of fitting arsenic K-edge EXAFS of GFAJ-1. S02 = 1, global amplitude factor and E0 = 13.97, offset for calibration. Type, the coordination type; Number, the coordination number; R, interatomic distance; and σ2, the measure of the static disorder of the shell. See table S2 for comparison to P in P-containing biomolecules (11).
X-ray analysis of GFAJ-1 +As/–P described similarity of As coordinated like P in DNA. (A) EXAFS comparisons of the Fourier transformed data for As in model environments and GFAJ-1 (washed and fixed, collected on whole cells). Identification of each spectrum is indicated on the figure and from top to bottom are As-S, As-Fe, and GFAJ-1 data (collected on whole cells) and fit to the GFAJ-1 data (red line). (B) XRF maps indicated the correlation between As, iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) and not with P with some variability but consistent with the trend that these elements are often found together (fig. S3, element correlation plots). The scale bar in the Zn quadrant of the maps is as designated and applies to all parts of the figure. Given the spatial resolution of these images, the structures identified as containing high As, Fe, and Zn are aggregates of cells. Ranges as indicated in the color bar run from cold to hot, in units of μg cm−2, as follows: As, 0 to 1.6; P, 0 to 40; Fe, 0 to 32.1; and Zn, 0 to 2.8. Standards were used to calibrate signal and background (11).
Our data show arsenic-dependent growth by GFAJ-1 (Fig. 1). Growth was accompanied by AsO43– uptake and assimilation into biomolecules including nucleic acids, proteins, and metabolites (Figs. 2 and 3 and Tables 1 and 2). In some organisms, arsenic induces specific resistance genes to cope with its toxicity (7), whereas some dissimilatory arsenic-utilizing microbes can conserve energy for growth from the oxidation of reduced arsenic species, or “breathe” AsO43–, as a terminal electron acceptor (18). Our study differs because we used As as a selective agent and excluded P, a major requirement in all hitherto known organisms. However, GFAJ-1 is not an obligate arsenophile and grew considerably better when provided with P (Fig. 1, A and B). Although AsO43– esters are predicted to be orders of magnitude less stable than PO43– esters, at least for simple molecules (8), GFAJ-1 can cope with this instability. The vacuole-like regions observed in GFAJ-1 cells when growing under +As/–P conditions are potentially poly-β-hydroxybutyrate rich [as shown in other Halomonas species (19)], which may stabilize As(V)-O-C type structures because nonaqueous environments appear to promote slower hydrolysis rates for related compounds (8). We propose that intracellular regions or mechanisms that exclude water may also promote this stability.
We report the discovery of an unusual microbe, strain GFAJ-1, that exceptionally can vary the elemental composition of its basic biomolecules by substituting As for P. How As insinuates itself into the structure of biomolecules is unclear, and the mechanisms by which such molecules operate are unknown.
Supporting Online Material
www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/science.1197258/DC1
Materials and Methods
Figs. S1 to S3
Tables S1 to S4
References
- Received for publication 1 September 2010.
- Accepted for publication 8 November 2010.
References and Notes
- ↵
J. Berg, J. Tymoczko, L. Stryer, Biochemistry (W. H. Freeman & Co., New York, ed. 6, 2007).
- ↵
- R. Hille
- ↵
- T. W. Lane,
- F. M. Morel
- ↵
G. Jameson, J. Ibers, in Biological Inorganic Chemistry: Structure and Reactivity, I. Bertini, H. Gray, I. Stiefel, J. Valentine, Eds. (University Science Books, Sausalito, CA, 2007), pp. 354–386.
- ↵
D. Lide, Ed., CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 90th Edition (Internet Version 2010) (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, Boca Raton, FL, 2010).
- ↵
- F. Wolfe-Simon,
- P. C. W. Davies,
- A. D. Anbar
- ↵
- B. P. Rosen
- ↵
- C. D. Baer,
- J. O. Edwards,
- P. H. Rieger
- ↵
- ↵
- J. Switzer Blum,
- A. Burns Bindi,
- J. Buzzelli,
- J. F. Stolz,
- R. S. Oremland
- ↵
Materials and methods are available as supporting material on Science Online.
- ↵
- M. Takeuchi
- et al
- ↵
- ↵
- J. Mandelstam
- ↵
- P. G. Smith
- et al
- ↵
- I. J. Pickering
- et al
- ↵
- S. Holbrook,
- R. Dickerson,
- S. H. Kim
- ↵
- R. S. Oremland,
- J. F. Stolz
- ↵
- J. Quillaguaman,
- O. Delgado,
- B. Mattiasson,
- R. Hatti-Kaul
-
What's Wrong With NASA's Arsenic-Eating Bacteria Study?
by Rich Deem 
Eating Arsenic?
In what is likely to go down along side the discovery of "fossil bacteria" in a Martian meteorite, NASA scientists have failed to do their homework in announcing a new "kind" of life that can live on arsenic. Where did they go wrong and why?
Rich Deem
Introduction
The main axiom of biology is that all life forms use six major atoms in their chemical designs - carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur. However, NASA announced that they had "found" a bacterium that used arsenic in place of phosphorus. It was not surprising that a bacterium would incorporate arsenic into its biomolecules - even humans can do that. Arsenic lies just below phosphorus on the periodic table of elements, meaning that it is chemically similar to other elements in its column. What is surprising is that doing so did not kill the bacteria. With virtually every other life form, incorporating arsenic in one's biomolecules results in death, since the resulting arsenate-containing molecules are inherently unstable.1 How did these bacteria escape sure death? Did they really "eat" arsenic?
What did NASA "find"?
Authors of the study2 took sediment from California's Mono Lake, an alkaline, salty lake containing 88 mg of phosphate and 200 µM of arsenic per liter. The sediment was grown in similar defined medium containing 10 mM glucose as a carbon source, 0.8 mM NH4SO4 as a nitrogen and sulfur source, and an assortment of the vitamins and trace minerals that might be needed for bacterial growth. Although the basic medium had no added phosphate or arsenate, contamination of the ingredients caused it to contain about 3 µM phosphate (PO4) and about 0.3 µM arsenate (AsO4). Bacteria, strain GFAJ-1 of the Halomonadaceae, were grown in this media supplemented with arsenate or phosphate at various concentrations. Authors of the study grew bacteria from the sediment in increasing amounts of arsenic, eventually settling on 40 mM (which is a lot). In reality, NASA did not just "find" an arsenic-tolerating bacterium, but they selected for it. Whether such bacteria exist naturally in Mono Lake (or anywhere else) is still a question.
Arsenic in biomolecules?
The authors grew GFAJ-1 in 75As-containing medium and isolated DNA and cellular extracts using Chloroform-Phenol (an old-fashioned technology). The vast majority of the arsenic was found in the phenol layer (which contains proteins and small molecular weight compounds). The aqueous layer was run on a gel, with the band being cut out and dried before being analyzed by NanoSIMS. The data showed increased arsenic in arsenate-grown bacteria, although there was only a two-fold difference compared with phosphate-grown bacteria. The main concern is that the researchers failed to extract the DNA from the gel and purify it on a column (a 15-minute standard procedure these days in molecular biology). Such a procedure would have insured that the DNA was washed of possible external contaminating arsenic.
Growth curve problems
The GFAJ-1 isolate was grown in the presence of phosphate or arsenate and both optical density (OD) and colony forming units (CFU) were determined. Although the curves looked similar in the original figure,3 examining the curves on the same scale shows that not all the curves match. If you look at the blue curves to the right (hover over thumbnail), you can see that the OD and CFU curves for GFAJ-1 grown in phosphate are virtually identical (other then the one outlier point). However, when grown with arsenic, the CFUs plateau at 6 days, whereas the OD continues to increase through 15 days. The fact that arsenate supports 10-fold fewer CFU suggests that there is a rate limiting nutrient in the medium. Other reviews of the data suggest that GFAJ-1 is scavenging the small amount of phosphate available in the "phosphate-free" media. Since the OD continues to increase, the data suggests that bacteria are growing slowly and dying, resulting in a static number of CFUs, but increasing OD. It is possible that the dead bacteria are slowly releasing their phosphate, which living bacteria scavenge. Supportive of this idea is the appearance of the bacteria grown in arsenate - they are larger and more rounded (as opposed to rod-shaped) and contain huge vacuoles. Coupled with the reduced growth rate, these data suggest that GFAJ-1 is very unhappy about growing without adequate phosphate.
What the study doesn't show
NASA hyped the study by announcing a news conference that "will impact the search for extraterrestrial life." NASA speculated that the discovery of an arsenic utilizing bacterium would open the doors to other forms of alien life. The actual Science study does not speculate on the relevance of the findings to possible extraterrestrial life or the origin of life, although this has not stopped other scientists from doing so. Zita Martins, an astrobiologist at Imperial College London, said, "For future space missions that try to detect life, if we are just concerned about the elements we should follow, we always included carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, sulphur and phosphorus. Now we have one more element we should follow."4 Of course, news outlets hyped the discovery immensely, including CNN's claim that "Scientists have discovered a form of bacteria that can thrive on arsenic."5 In reality, the organism did not "thrive," but barely was able to survive.
Conclusion 
In conclusion, sloppy techniques and failure to eliminate all phosphate from the medium leaves open the possibility that GFAJ-1 is just really good at scavenging phosphate from an arsenate containing environment. Since GFAJ-1 grows 3- to 10-fold more slowly in arsenate, it is likely that the bacterium is doing a significant amount of repair activity to fix the problems caused by arsenate incorporation. Some blogs have indicated that arsenate containing DNA is so unstable that NSAS scientists would not be able to isolate intact DNA through the phenol-chloroform extraction procedure the employed, suggesting that the DNA was actually composed of phosphorous and not arsenic. NASA scientists have offered to provide the strain to any other scientist to confirm their data. Regardless of the outcome, the idea that this bacterium is a new form of life that expands the possible forms of carbon life is false. It is clear that GFAJ-1 is an extremophile that has adapted to living in high salt and high arsenate environments. There is no indication that life could originate under those extreme environmental conditions. This page will be updated when more information is available.
Follow-up
Other researchers did obtain the "arsenic-eating" bacteria and ran additional experiments. As I had predicted, the new studies found no arsenic within the DNA of GFAJ-1.6 Further experiments are planned to examine the role of arsenic in other biomolecules.
Related Pages
- NASA Scientist Discovers Alien Life in Meteorites - Again! NOT!
- Cell Membrane-Like Organic Vesicles Formed in Conditions Mimicking Interstellar Clouds?
- Origin of Life Theories: Metabolism-first vs. Replicator-first Hypotheses
- The Origin of Homochirality: A Major Problem for Origin of Life Theories
- Abiogenesis: Is the Chemical Origin of Life a Realistic Scenario?
- Evolution Deception in California State High School Biology Textbook Biology: Principles & Explorations
- Problems with the Origin of Biological Membranes Under Prebiotic Conditions
- Origin of life: latest theories/problems
- The Origin of Life on Planet Earth
- Book Review: Origins of Life: Biblical and Evolutionary Models Face Off
Related Materials
Origins of Life: Biblical and Evolutionary Models Face Off
References
- B. Rosen. 2002. FEBS Lett. 529: 86.
Wolfe-Simon, F., P. C. W. Davies, A. D. Anbar. 2009. Int. J. Astrobio. 8: 69. - Felisa Wolfe-Simon,1,2* Jodi Switzer Blum. 2010. A Bacterium That Can Grow by Using Arsenic Instead of Phosphorus. Science doi:10.1126/science.1197258.
- Data from the original figure was extracted and replotted using Microsoft Excel. The Excel worksheet (
148 KB) is available. - Alok Jha. NASA reveals bacteria that can live on arsenic instead of phosphorus. Guardian News and Media Limited. Thursday 2 December 2010.
- Arsenic-feeding bacteria find expands traditional notions of life. CNN December 02, 2010.
- Erika Check Hayden. Study Fails to Confirm Existence of Arsenic-Based Life. Scientific American, January 23, 2012.
http://www.godandscience.org/evolution/nasa_arsenic_bacteria.html
Last updated January 24, 2012
-
Waiting for Godot, Oops, God Particle, Higgs boson « इदं न मम
mysistereileen.com/?p=41506 days ago – इदं न मम. I take no credit for this. Waiting for Godot, Oops, God Particle, Higgs boson … Waiting for Godot – er I mean waiting for the Higgs ... -
Higgs boson: Bad news and good news. « इदं न मम
mysistereileen.com/?p=42164 days ago – 1 day ago – Waiting for Godot – er I mean waiting for the Higgs boson – Google+ … Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine … 10+ items – Find ... -
June « 2012 « इदं न मम
mysistereileen.com/?m=201206Waiting for Godot, Oops, God Particle, Higgs boson · Illegal Immigrants, Immoral Immigration Laws and I · Hi Barack! Goodbye, Oops, Good Riddance, ... -
Ann Romney's Wild Ride in Idlewild, Oops, IdlePolitics « इदं न मम
mysistereileen.com/?p=42363 days ago – Apr 3, 2012 – Mitt Romney's last act « इदं न मम – My Sister Eileen. .... N.J. woman has 51-pound tumor removed · Higgs boson explained by ... -
इदं न मम
www.cogitoergosumdesign.com/?paged=220 hours ago – mysistereileen.com My Sister Prudence: Sid Harth: धर्मक्षेत्रे … …. N.J. woman has 51-pound tumor removed · Higgs boson explained ... -
Uncategorized « इदं न मम
www.cogitoergosumdesign.com/?cat=1&paged=7Waiting for Godot, Oops, God Particle, Higgs boson ... 07/02/2012 Waiting for Godot, Oops, God Particle, Higgs boson इदं न मम mysistereileen.com/ इदं न मम. -
What does it matter, CERN Scientists? « हिन्दू तर्क ...
mysistermarilynmonroe.org/2012/.../what-does-it-matter-cern-scientis...4 days ago – Waiting for Godot, Oops, God Particle, Higgs boson « इदं न मम. mysistereileen.com/?p=4150. 1 day ago – Scientists with access to the new ... -
“Buy, buy, Oops, bye, bye Hillary, (I wouldn't) miss U.” Says Bill.
mysistermarilynmonroe.org/.../buy-buy-oops-bye-bye-hillary-i-woul...2 days ago – 16 hours ago – Jun 22, 2012 – Ad related to @mysistereileen.com Barack Obama Mitt … ….. on Suicide Watch and I · Higgs boson: Bad news ... -
Mitt Romney on Suicide Watch and I « हिन्दू तर्क ...
mysistermarilynmonroe.org/.../mitt-romney-on-suicide-watch-and-i-...3 days ago – Ad related to @mysistereileen.com Barack Obama Mitt Romney … ...... Modi on Suicide Watch and I · Higgs boson: Bad news and good news. -
Cogito Ergo Sum
www.rxx.co.il/TextPage_EN.aspx?ID=9707135&ref=add-to...16 hours ago – Jun 22, 2012 – Ad related to @mysistereileen.com Barack Obama Mitt … ….. on Suicide Watch and I · Higgs boson: Bad news and good ...
Ad related to mysistereileen.com Higgs bosonWhy this ad?
-
New Higgs Announcement
4.3 Sigma Gain on Particle Reaction to CERN Newswww.worldsciencefestival.com/
Nasa bacteria 'cannot substitute arsenic for phosphorus'
Image by: Octagon
Two scientific papers published have disproved a controversial claim made by NASA-funded scientists in 2010 that a new form of bacterial life had been discovered that could thrive on arsenic.
“Contrary to an original report, the new research clearly shows that the bacterium, GFAJ-1, cannot substitute arsenic for phosphorus to survive,” said a statement by Science magazine.
Science published the much-hyped initial study in December 2010, with lead researcher Felisa Wolfe-Simon, a fellow in Nasa’s astrobiology program, announcing that a new form of life had been scooped from a California lake.
The bacterium in arsenic-rich Mono Lake was said to redefine the building blocks of life, surviving and growing by swapping phosphorus for arsenic in its DNA and cell membranes.
Biologists consider these six elements as necessary for life: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur.
Arsenic is similar to phosphorus but is typically considered poisonous to living organisms.
But the study needed to be confirmed in order to be considered a true discovery, and two separate teams found that indeed, the bacterium needed some phosphate to survive, and could not fully substitute arsenic to live.
NASA has conducted numerous probes at eastern California’s Mono Lake, an unusually salty body of water with high arsenic and mineral levels, as it is likely to reflect conditions under which early life evolved on Earth, or perhaps Mars.
While Wolfe-Simon and colleagues acknowledged that there were very low levels of phosphate within their study samples, they concluded that this was a level of contamination that was insufficient to permit GFAJ to grow.
Two separate Science articles “now reveal that, in fact, her medium did contain enough phosphate contamination to support GFAJ-1’s growth,” said a statement by the magazine issued late Sunday.
One paper was written by Marshall Louis Reaves and colleagues at Princeton University, Rosemary Redfield at the University of British Columbia, and Leonid Kruglyak of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Canadian microbiologist Redfield was among the first outspoken critics of the initial study.
“I don’t know whether the authors are just bad scientists or whether they’re unscrupulously pushing NASA’s ’There’s life in outer space!’ agenda,” wrote Redfield in a blog that ignited the web furor shortly after the paper was first published.
The other paper to refute its findings was written by Tobias Erb and colleagues at the Institute of Microbiology, ETH Zurich.
Rather than being a new form of life that thrives on arsenic, Science’s statement described the bacterium as “a well-adapted extremophile that lives in a high-arsenic environment.” It “is likely adept at scavenging phosphate under harsh conditions, which would help to explain why it can grow even when arsenic is present within the cells,” said the journal’s statement.
“The scientific process is a naturally self-correcting one, as scientists attempt to replicate published results,” it added.
The journal did not retract the original study but said it was “pleased to publish additional information on GFAJ-1.”
STOR
Arsenic Speciation in Seawater and Interstitial Waters: The Influence of Biological-Chemical Interactions on the Chemistry of a Trace Element
Vol. 24, No. 3 (May, 1979), pp. 440-452
Published by: American Society of Limnology and Oceanography
Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2835603
Rights and Permissions
Preview or purchase options are not available
Whatever goes in the name of science is a matter of conjecture, not a proof, never a certainty. Famous British scientific journal, Nature, banned me forever. The reason is obvious. They are so scared of my comments. I am not clear as to what they consder as a valid comment. Another stupid joke?
I am not a sci-Fi guy. I read just enough to get my intellectual need satiated and leave those so called inventors and discoverers alone. I don't want to start something, nasty, obviously and get thrown out in the halls of academia.
My degree requirement was such that I had to take basic courses in science. I could just get a passing grade, if I crammed few hours before the tests and a final. I did not do such a silly science. I did my best. I guess, that does not make me a scientist. Oh, well. You can't win all the time. Can you?
...and I am Sid Harth@webworldismyoyster.com