A desert moss may be the key to terraforming Mars, according to a recent study published by Chinese scientists.
Because of its remarkable hardiness, Syntrichia caninervis (S. caninervis), a moss found in extreme desert environments from Tibet to Antarctica, has been declared a “pioneer plant” for creating a livable environment in March. Basically, scientists believe that this plant can enrich the rocky surface of the planet to enable the growth of other plants.
Several studies have explored alternative possibilities of these terraforming seeds, such as algae and lichens. “However, plants such as mosses offer key benefits to soil formation, including stress tolerance, a high capacity for photoautotrophic growth, and the potential to produce significant amounts of biomass under challenging conditions,” the new study team wrote. on paper.
Mosses are believed to have been the first true plants on earth earth. As such, they developed a tolerance to extreme stress that allowed them to survive the very harsh early environment of our planet.
But how extreme are we talking?
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Moss proofs
The scientists subjected whole S. caninervis plants to conditions typically found on Mars: high doses of gamma radiation, low oxygen, extreme cold and drought. They report that plants can withstand combinations of these conditions, even losing over 98% of their water content and still bounce back within seconds – “drying without dying” is the term that was used. Perhaps even more surprising is the plant’s ability to regenerate and grow new branches after being refrigerated at -80 degrees Celsius (-112 degrees Fahrenheit) for five years or in liquid nitrogen (-195.8 degrees C; – 320.44 degrees F) for one month.
“The unique morphological features of S. caninervis, such as twisted leaves, conserve water by minimizing surface area and reducing transpiration, and the amber provides efficient photoprotection against intense UV radiation, extreme temperatures, and water loss,” the team wrote. “Meanwhile, the cell wall, cell membrane and chloroplast and its membrane structure remain intact even in a completely dehydrated state.”
Under stress, S. caninervis enters a state of “selective metabolic dormancy,” strategically storing key metabolites—the products of cellular metabolic pathways—required for its rapid revival. “For example, S. caninervis plants maintain high levels of sucrose and maltose after stress; these sugars serve as osmotic and protective agents that help maintain and stabilize cellular architecture,” the scientists write. “The sugars then provide the energy needed for rapid recovery after relief from stressful conditions.”
Stress also triggers genes that code for photoprotective proteins and enzymes that help scavenge harmful reactive oxygen species created under radiation. “Multilayered tolerance [provides] protection under stressful conditions and enables rapid cellular repair and recovery of physiological activity when suitable conditions for growth are created”, stated the team.
These findings, the scientists continue, lay the foundations for building sustainable human habitats beyond Earth. Whether this statement is an exaggeration will depend on future experiments – and may not even be achievable in our lifetime – but an important element missing from the discussion is not the feasibility of the science, but the ethics behind it.
Do humans belong on Mars?
This concept of terraforming another planet is not new and has its roots in science fiction. And while the concept has been romanticized and spread in the media recently, there are serious concerns about the social consequences on an extraterrestrial scale as a result of the complete transformation of an entire planet for human occupation.
In her essay entitled The The prickly ethics of planetary engineering, for example, astrophysicist and NASA Researcher Erika Nesvold describes the dilemma quite clearly: “The goal of terraforming is to deliberately create an entire ecosystem on a global scale, which would more than likely destroy any existing ecosystem,” she wrote. “Earth-forming technology may even become feasible before we definitively determine whether extraterrestrial life exists on the planet or moon we hope to transform.”
“But suppose we discover evidence of microbial life existing on a planet like Mars,” she continued. “Should it disqualify Mars as a target for terraforming? Should we avoid settling on Mars altogether?”
The study was published on July 1 in The Innovation magazine.