Viruses exist wherever life is found. They are a major cause of mortality, a driver of global geochemical cycles and a reservoir of the greatest genetic diversity on Earth. In the oceans, viruses probably infect all living things, from bacteria to whales. They affect the form of available nutrients and the termination of algal blooms. Viruses can move between marine and terrestrial reservoirs, raising the spectre of emerging pathogens. Our understanding of the effect of viruses on global systems and processes continues to unfold, overthrowing the idea that viruses and virus-mediated processes are sidebars to global processes.

Viruses in the sea

Fresh fracture surfaces of the martian meteorite ALH84001 contain abundant polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). These fresh fracture surfaces also display carbonate globules. Contamination studies suggest that the PAHs are indigenous to the meteorite. High-resolution scanning and transmission electron microscopy study of surface textures and internal structures of selected carbonate globules show that the globules contain fine-grained, secondary phases of single-domain magnetite and Fe-sulfides. The carbonate globules are similar in texture and size to some terrestrial bacterially induced carbonate precipitates. Although inorganic formation is possible, formation of the globules by biogenic processes could explain many of the observed features, including the PAHs. The PAHs, the carbonate globules, and their associated secondary mineral phases and textures could thus be fossil remains of a past martian biota.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/273/5277/924.full.pdf

Search for past life on Mars: possible relic biogenic activity in martian meteorite ALH84001.

Microbes play key geoactive roles in the biosphere, particularly in the areas of element biotransformations and biogeochemical cycling, metal and mineral transformations, decomposition, bioweathering, and soil and sediment formation. All kinds of microbes, including prokaryotes and eukaryotes and their symbiotic associations with each other and 'higher organisms', can contribute actively to geological phenomena, and central to many such geomicrobial processes are transformations of metals and minerals. Microbes have a variety of properties that can effect changes in metal speciation, toxicity and mobility, as well as mineral formation or mineral dissolution or deterioration. Such mechanisms are important components of natural biogeochemical cycles for metals as well as associated elements in biomass, soil, rocks and minerals, e.g. sulfur and phosphorus, and metalloids, actinides and metal radionuclides. Apart from being important in natural biosphere processes, metal and mineral transformations can have beneficial or detrimental consequences in a human context. Bioremediation is the application of biological systems to the clean-up of organic and inorganic pollution, with bacteria and fungi being the most important organisms for reclamation, immobilization or detoxification of metallic and radionuclide pollutants. Some biominerals or metallic elements deposited by microbes have catalytic and other properties in nanoparticle, crystalline or colloidal forms, and these are relevant to the development of novel biomaterials for technological and antimicrobial purposes. On the negative side, metal and mineral transformations by microbes may result in spoilage and destruction of natural and synthetic materials, rock and mineral-based building materials (e.g. concrete), acid mine drainage and associated metal pollution, biocorrosion of metals, alloys and related substances, and adverse effects on radionuclide speciation, mobility and containment, all with immense social and economic consequences. The ubiquity and importance of microbes in biosphere processes make geomicrobiology one of the most important concepts within microbiology, and one requiring an interdisciplinary approach to define environmental and applied significance and underpin exploitation in biotechnology.

http://dzumenvis.nic.in/Physiology/pdf/Metals,%20minerals%20and%20microbes.pdf

Metals, minerals and microbes: geomicrobiology and bioremediation

Gram-negative cell walls are strong enough to withstand ;3 atm of turgor pressure (40), tough enough to endure extreme temperatures and pHs (e.g., Thiobacillus ferrooxidans grows at ap H of’1.5) and elastic enough to be capable of expanding several times their normal surface area (41). Strong, tough, and elasti c...t hegram-negative cell wall is a remarkable structure which protects the contents of the cell and which has stood the test of time for many, many years. Presumably, these three descriptive traits, have much to do with the tremendous success gram-negative bacteria have had as a life-form on our planet; members of the domain Bacteria inhabit almost all imaginable habitats except those excruciatingly extreme environments in which (some) members of the domain Archaea thrive. Molecular biological methods have not yet given scientists a precise historical record of the origin of gram-negative bacteria, but ancient stromatolites containing fossilized remains of cyanobacterium-like prokaryotes date back to the Archean eon. Over such extraordinary periods of time (much of it when no other life existed), we can imagine that random mutation, selection, and the slowly but ever-changing global

Structures of Gram-Negative Cell Walls and Their Derived Membrane Vesicles

/pdf/processes-of-carbonate-precipitation-in-modern-microbial-176vfhaypi.pdf

Processes of carbonate precipitation in modern microbial mats

The specific adrenal dopamine-β-hydroxylase activity measured in cat and rat was: (1) two times higher in cat than in rat; (2) significantly enhanced by ascorbate (up to 5 mM) that acts as a major activator; (3) differently affected by exogenous copper added to the incubation medium, leading to a decrease with large concentrations; and (4) similar, according to the kinetic parameters, thereby demonstrating a greater affinity for ascorbate than for tyramine.

Danielle Fortin

Papers

Comparative study of biochemical parameters and kinetic properties of dopamine-β-hydroxylase activity from cat and rat adrenals

Biominerals. Recorders of the Past

Sulfur speciation in marine sediments impacted by gas emissions in the northern part of the South China Sea

Mineralogical and geochemical characteristics of hydrocarbon-bleached rocks in Baiyanggou mud volcanoes, Xinjiang, NW China

Research articleRole of Thiobacillus and sulfate-reducing bacteria in iron biocycling in oxic and acidic mine tailings