Gault Stewart, Jaworek Michel W, Winter Roland, Cockell Charles S
UK Centre for Astrobiology, SUPA School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, James Clerk Maxwell Building, Peter Guthrie Tait Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3FD, UK.
Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Physical Chemistry I - Biophysical Chemistry, TU Dortmund University, Otto-Hahn-Str. 4a, D-44227, Dortmund, Germany.
Commun Biol. 2020 Oct 2;3(1):550. doi: 10.1038/s42003-020-01279-4.
Deep subsurface environments can harbour high concentrations of dissolved ions, yet we know little about how this shapes the conditions for life. We know even less about how the combined effects of high pressure influence the way in which ions constrain the possibilities for life. One such ion is perchlorate, which is found in extreme environments on Earth and pervasively on Mars. We investigated the interactions of high pressure and high perchlorate concentrations on enzymatic activity. We demonstrate that high pressures increase α-chymotrypsin enzyme activity even in the presence of high perchlorate concentrations. Perchlorate salts were shown to shift the folded α-chymotrypsin phase space to lower temperatures and pressures. The results presented here may suggest that high pressures increase the habitability of environments under perchlorate stress. Therefore, deep subsurface environments that combine these stressors, potentially including the subsurface of Mars, may be more habitable than previously thought.
深层地下环境中可能含有高浓度的溶解离子，但我们对其如何塑造生命条件却知之甚少。我们对高压的综合影响如何影响离子限制生命可能性的方式了解得更少。高氯酸盐就是这样一种离子，它存在于地球的极端环境中，在火星上也普遍存在。我们研究了高压和高氯酸盐浓度对酶活性的相互作用。我们证明，即使在高氯酸盐浓度较高的情况下，高压也会增加α-胰凝乳蛋白酶的酶活性。高氯酸盐盐类被证明会将折叠的α-胰凝乳蛋白酶相空间转移到更低的温度和压力下。这里给出的结果可能表明，高压增加了高氯酸盐胁迫下环境的宜居性。因此，结合了这些压力因素的深层地下环境，可能包括火星的地下，可能比以前认为的更宜居。
