[Baps] PLS Tuesday (11/15) - Rachel Moore (Georgia Tech) - Genome-informed habitability of planetary environments

[John B. Biersteker]

Hello everyone,

Next week we are excited to host Dr. Rachel Moore from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She will be talking about the habitability of planetary environments, particularly Mars and Enceladus. See below for the abstract and additional information. While this will be a remote presentation, we will still be gathering in person in 54-517. As usual, please try to arrive a few minutes early to get food so that we can start on time.

Looking forward to seeing you there,
John & the PLS Committee

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Title: Working toward genome-informed habitability of planetary environments

Abstract: Early Mars was likely habitable for life as we know it due in part to the relative abundance of liquid water. For instance, it is evidenced that Gale crater, a late Noachian to early Hesperian-aged crater (3.5-3.8 Gya), contained a pH-neutral hyposaline lake. We have developed a simple community-based genome-scale model to evaluate the microbial habitability of early Mars constrained by reconstructed water chemistry at Gale crater. Genome-scale models computationally describe microbial metabolisms based on the specific genetic information encoded within said organisms. We will first explore how genome-scale models are produced and then demonstrate how they can be used to predict biomass yields and the production of other metabolites (e.g., biomarkers) in the example of a Gale Lake environment. The results of that model illustrate the plausibility of a sustained community in Gale Lake and establish a method that can be applied to other potentially habitable systems. Finally, we will discuss in-progress improvements to genome-scale modeling, in addition to current laboratory-based collaborative efforts that will further evaluate the current habitability of present-day Mars and Enceladus.

When: 12:30 PM ET, Tuesday November 15
Where: 54-517 & https://mit.zoom.us/j/96525774689 (PW: 54915)
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