Screening the Survival of Cyanobacteria Under Perchlorate Stress. Potential Implications for Mars In Situ Resource Utilization

Abstract

Cyanobacteria are good candidates for various martian applications as a potential source of food, fertilizer, oxygen, and biofuels. However, the increased levels of highly toxic perchlorates may be a significant obstacle to their growth on Mars. Therefore, in the present study, 17 cyanobacteria strains that belong to Chroococcales, Chroococcidiopsidales, Nostocales, Oscillatoriales, Pleurocapsales, and Synechococcales were exposed to 0.25–1.0% magnesium perchlorate concentrations (1.5–6.0 m M ClO 4 − ions) for 14 days. The exposure to perchlorate induced at least partial inhibition of growth in all tested strains, although five of them were able to grow at the highest perchlorate concentration: Chroococcidiopsis thermalis , Leptolyngbya foveolarum , Arthronema africanum , Geitlerinema cf. acuminatum , and Cephalothrix komarekiana . Chroococcidiopsis sp. Chroococcidiopsis cubana demonstrated growth up to 0.5%. Strains that maintained growth displayed significantly increased malondialdehyde content, indicating perchlorate-induced oxidative stress, whereas the chlorophyll a /carotenoids ratio tended to be decreased. The results show that selected cyanobacteria from different orders can tolerate perchlorate concentrations typical for the martian regolith, indicating that they may be useful in Mars exploration. Further studies are required to elucidate the biochemical and molecular basis for the perchlorate tolerance in selected cyanobacteria.

Survival, metabolic activity, and ultrastructural damages of Antarctic black fungus in perchlorates media

“…Halorubrum lacusprofundi showed a higher sensitivity to Mg-perchlorate than Na-perchlorate (50% inhibition at 0.3 M Na-perchlorate versus 0.1 M for Mg-perchlorate; Laye and DasSarma, 2018), while no growth was reported for Chroococcus cf. membraninus, Mycrocystis aeruginosa, Calochaete cimrmanii, Kastovskya adunca cyanobacteria species in presence of the same compound (Rzymski et al, 2022). C. thermalis was the most tolerant among different tested strain of cyanobacteria, maintaining growth throughout the 0.25-1.0% magnesium perchlorate concentration range (Rzymski et al, 2022).…”

On the growth dynamics of the cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. PCC 7938 in Martian regolith

“…But Mars’s regolith is not a source of nutrients only: critically, it also contains oxychlorine species. Most concerning are likely perchlorates: they are toxic to cyanobacteria, with intensities which are species-dependent 14 , 35 . Here, spiking MGS-1 with 0.6 wt%.…”

Perchlorate‐specific proteomic stress responses of Debaryomyces hansenii could enable microbial survival in Martian brines

“…Indeed, previous studies indicated that perchlorate induces oxidative stress to mitochondria by enhanced ROS production (58,59). Yet, similar to the enhanced lipid peroxidation of cells grown in perchlorate-containing medium (56), the missing comparisons with NaCl or other solutes made it impossible for the authors of these studies to proof that the increased ROS levels resulted from perchlorate-specific reactions and are not caused by the general osmotic stress. If the reduced mitochondrial translation activity observed in our experiments would be a result of an enhanced oxidative stress, a concomitant downregulation of respiratory chain proteins would be expected to occur.…”

“…Indeed, there is evidence that several genes in microorganisms from sediments of hypersaline ponds increase both the resistance to perchlorate and to oxidative stress induced by hydrogen peroxide (Díaz-Rullo et al, 2021). Furthermore, increased levels of lipid peroxidation after growth of different species of cyanobacteria in perchlorate-containing growth media were interpreted as results of oxidative stress (Rzymski et al, 2022). However, the authors did not investigate whether the oxidative stress is perchlorate-specific or would by observed to a similar extent by other salts (e.g.…”