著者

赤井 純治

出版者

日本宇宙生物科学会

雑誌

Biological Sciences in Space (ISSN:09149201)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.14, no.4, pp.363-371, 2000

被引用文献数

2

---

Recently, there is strong interest on microbe - mineral interactions. This is related also to recent expanded knowledges on extremely severe environments in which microbes live. Interaction between microbes and minerals contains biomineralization processes. Varieties of biomineralization products are found not only in various geologic materials and processes in the earth's history but also in present surface environments. Some hot springs represent such environments similar to those of unique and extremely severe environments for life. In this short review, the author briefly shows some examples of biomineralizations at some hot springs and mineral springs, Japan . In such environments, iron ore was formed and some varieties of growing stromatolites were found. The varieties of stromatolite are siliceous, calcic and manganese types. Cyanobacteria and the other bacteria are related to form the stromatolite structure. In the Gunma iron ore, sedimentary iron ores were mineralogically described in order to evaluate the role of microorganisms and plants in ore formation. The iron ore is composed of nanocrystalline goethite. Algal fossils are clearly preserved in some ores. Various products of biomineralization are found in the present pH 2-3, Fe<SUP>2+</SUP>- and SO<SUB>4</SUB><SUP>2-</SUP> - rich streams. Bacterial precipitation had variations from amorphous Fe-P-(S) precipitates near the outlet of mineral spring, to Fe-P-S precipitates and to Fe-S-(P) precipitates. Mosses and green algae are also collecting Fe precipitates in and around the living and dead cells. The Gunma Iron Ore can be said as Biologically Induced Iron Ore. At Onikobe and Akakura hot springs, growing stromatolites of siliceous and calcareous types, were found, respectively. At Onikobe, The stromatolites grow especially near the geyser. Cyanobacterial filaments in stromatolite were well preserved in the siliceous and calcic stromatolites. The filaments oriented in two directions which form the layered structures were found. At Yunokoya hot spring, black and brittle stromatolitic structures which were composed of amorphous Mn minerals are growing. The form of these structures are hemispherical. Many bacteria that were coated with amorphous Mn minerals were found on these structures. Furthermore, Precambrian ( Proterozoic : Wittenoom- Chichester region, western Australia) manganese stromatolite was briefly shown in comparison. The black stromatolite has been clarified to be composed of todorokite. Small spotty and donuts-like shaped todorokite aggregates which are very similar to biologically induced Mn-precipitates were found in massive dolomite layers.

著者

Akihiko Yamagishi Shin-ichi Yokobori Yoshitaka Yoshimura Masamichi Yamashita Hirofumi Hashimoto Takashi Kubota Hajime Yano Junichi Haruyama Makoto Tabata Kensei Kobayashi Hajime Honda Yuichi Utsumi Tsunemasa Saiki Takashi Itoh Atsuo Miyakawa Kenji Hamase Takeshi Naganuma Hajime Mita Kenichi Tonokura Sho Sasaki Hideaki Miyamoto

出版者

日本宇宙生物科学会

雑誌

Biological Sciences in Space (ISSN:09149201)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.24, no.2, pp.67-82, 2010 (Released:2012-06-26)

参考文献数

114

被引用文献数

1 12

---

Liquid water is considered to be critical for life. Gibbs free energy is another factor that is important to sustain life for long durations. Gibbs free energy is obtained by reactions between reductants and oxidants, or from any other non-equilibrium state of matter. As an example, aerobic organisms use carbohydrates and oxygen to obtain energy. Many types of chemoautotrophic mechanisms are known for this process as well. On the surface of Mars, methane and oxidative compounds such as ferric oxide, sulfate and perchloride, which could provide redox-derived Gibbs free energy, have been detected. Iron-dependent methane oxidizing bacteria have been found in marine environments on Earth. This finding suggests the possible presence of methane-oxidizing bacteria on the Mars surface, if the local thermal environment and other resources permit proliferation and metabolism of bacteria. Our project aims to search for methane-oxidizing microbes on the Mars surface. Martian soil will be sampled from a depth of about 5 - 10 cm below the surface, where organisms are expected to be protected from the harsh hyper-oxidative environment of the Mars surface. Small particles less than 0.1 mm or 1 mm will be sieved from the sample, before being transferred to the analysis section by a micro-actuator. The particles will be stained with a cocktail of fluorescent reagents, and examined by fluorescence microscopy. A combination of fluorescent dyes has been selected to identify life forms in samples. A membrane-specific dye or a combination of dyes will be used to detect membranes surrounding the "cell". An intercalating fluorescent dye such as SYBR Green will be used to detect genetic compounds such as DNA. A substrate dye that emits fluorescence upon cleavage by a catalytic reaction will be used to detect the catalytic activity of the "cell". A combination of staining reagents has been chosen based on the definition of life. A membrane separating a cell from the ambient environment may lead to identification of an "individual". DNA or genetic material is required for "replication" of the life form. Catalytic reactions carried out by enzymes drive "metabolism". This combination of strategies will also be useful for detecting pre-biotic organic material as well as remnants of ancient life. Hydrolysis of the polymers in the "cell" followed by HPLC or soft ionization MS for amino acid analysis will be effective for examining whether Martian life is identical to or different from terrestrial life. The number and type of the amino acids as well as their chirality will be analyzed to distinguish whether the polymers are contaminants from Earth.

著者

高林 彰

出版者

日本宇宙生物科学会

雑誌

Biological Sciences in Space (ISSN:09149201)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.13, no.1, pp.9-13, 1999 (Released:2006-02-01)

参考文献数

4

---

Behavioral responses and eye movements of fish during linear acceleration were reviewed. It is known that displacement of otoliths in the inner ear leads to body movements and⁄or eye movements. On the ground, the utriculus of the vestibular system is stimulated by otolith displacement caused by gravitational and inertial forces during horizontal acceleration of whole body. When the acceleration is imposed on the fish's longitudinal axis, the fish showed nose-down and nose-up posture for tailward and noseward displacement of otolith respectively. These responses were understood that the fish aligned his longitudinal body axis in a plane perpendicular to the direction of resultant force vector acting on the otoliths. When the acceleration was sideward, the fish rolled around his longitudinal body axis so that his back was tilted against the direction in which the inertial force acted on the otoliths. Linear acceleration applied to fish's longitudinal body axis evoked torsional eye movement. Direction of torsion coincided with the direction of acceleration, which compensate the change of resultant force vector produced by linear acceleration and gravity. Torsional movement of left and right eye coordinated with each other. In normal fish, both sinusoidal and rectangular acceleration of 0.1G could evoke clear eye torsion. Though the amplitude of response increased with increasing magnitude of acceleration up to 0.5 G, the torsion angle did not fully compensate the angle calculated from gravity and linear acceleration. Removal of the otolith on one side reduced the response amplitude of both eyes. The torsion angle evoked by rectangular acceleration was smaller than that evoked by sinusoidal acceleration in both normal and unilaterally labyrinthectomized fish. These results suggest that eye torsion of fish include both static and dynamic components.

著者

小松 左京

出版者

日本宇宙生物科学会

雑誌

Biological Sciences in Space (ISSN:09149201)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.5, no.2, pp.93-98, 1991

著者

Shigeo Aibara Katsumi Shibata Yuhei Morita

出版者

日本宇宙生物科学会

雑誌

Biological Sciences in Space (ISSN:09149201)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.11, no.4, pp.339-345, 1997 (Released:2006-02-01)

参考文献数

17

被引用文献数

1 1

---

A space experiment involving protein crystallization was conducted in a microgravity environment using the space shuttle “Endeavour”of STS-47, on a 9-day mission from September 12th to 20th in 1992. The crystallization was carried out according to a batch method, and 5 proteins were selected as flight samples for crystallization. Two of these proteins : hen egg-white lysozyme and co-amino acid: pyruvate aminotransferase from Pseudomonas sp. F-126, were obtained as single crystals of good diffraction quality. Since 1992 we have carried out several space experiments for protein crystallization aboard space shuttles and the space station MIR. Our experimental results obtained mainly from hen egg-white lysozyme are described below, focusing on the effects of microgravity on protein crystal growth.

著者

Ken Ohnishi Akihisa Takahashi Hiroaki Tanaka Takeo Ohnishi

出版者

日本宇宙生物科学会

雑誌

Biological Sciences in Space (ISSN:09149201)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.10, no.4, pp.247-251, 1996 (Released:2006-02-01)

参考文献数

4

被引用文献数

5 5

---

The catfish Synodontis nigriventris shows a unique habit taking a stable upsidedown posture in free water regardless of an above, one-sided illumination. This upsidedown posture can be observed when the catfish is apart from objects because the catfish usually orients its ventral side towards the water bottom or objects due to a so-called ventral substrate response. Thus, it is not easy to study the mechanism of the upside-down posture. To resolve this problem, the frequency of the upside-down posture was measured by using various sizes of vessel in which the catfish was kept. Video analysis showed that the frequency of the upside-down posture depended on the space size around the catfish. The smaller the size became, the higher the frequency of the upside-down posture became. Furthermore, the frequency of the upside-down posture depended on the shape of the vessel bottom. Curved-bottom vessels induced the upside-down posture more frequently than flat bottom. These findings suggest that a small, curved-bottom vessel is ideal for researching the upside-down postural control mechanism.

著者

平林 久

出版者

日本宇宙生物科学会

雑誌

Biological Sciences in Space (ISSN:09149201)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.17, no.4, pp.324-340, 2003 (Released:2005-12-27)

---

It is much easier to find extraterrestrial intelligence than to detect simple organisms living on other planets. However, it is hard to communicate with such intelligence without the mutual understanding of inter-stellar communication protocol. The radio SETI (The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) was initiated with the pioneering work of F. Drake in 1960, one year after the historical SETI paper by Cocconi and Morrison(1959). This talk explains that SETI evolves with two bases of science; the understanding of our universe and the development of technology. Since SETI has had strong connection with radio astronomy from its early beginning, the impacts of radio astronomical findings and technological breakthrough can be seen in many aspects of the SETI history. Topics of this talk include the detection of microwave 3 K background radiation in the universe. Interstellar atomic and molecular lines found in radio-wave spectra provide the evidence of pre-biotic chemical evolution in such region. Radio telescope imaging and spectral technique are closely associated with methodology of SETI. Topics of the talk extend to new Allen Telescope Array and projected Square Kilometer Array. Recent optical SETI and the discoveries of extra solar planets are also explained. In the end, the recent understanding of our universe is briefly introduced in terms of matter, dark matter and dark energy. Even our understanding of the universe has been evolutionarily revolved and accumulated after 1960, we must recognize that our universe is still poorly understood and that astronomy and SETI are required to proceed hand in hand.

著者

井上 勲

出版者

日本宇宙生物科学会

雑誌

Biological Sciences in Space (ISSN:09149201)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.19, no.4, pp.276-283, 2005 (Released:2006-09-06)

---

Eukaryotic autotrophs, generally assembled as plants, are polyphyletic and they appear across at least five super groups of eukaryotes, which indicate that photosynthesis has been horizontally transferred between different lineages of eukaryotes. This situation is explained by secondary endosymbioses that should have occurred between heterotrophic eukaryotes and primary plants (red and green algae). Evolutionary process generating new algal lineage can be considered by comparison of dinoflagellates and Hatena, a flagellate we recently found, all of which are likely under intermediate stages of secondary endosymbioses. Evolution of protein transport machinery to send nuclear encoded proteins back into the plastids was also considered referring recent reports of molecular biology.

著者

中村 輝子 吉田 正人

出版者

日本宇宙生物科学会

雑誌

Biological Sciences in Space (ISSN:09149201)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.14, no.3, pp.123-131, 2000 (Released:2006-02-01)

参考文献数

67

被引用文献数

6 5 6

---

: In this review, we attempted to summarize the effect of gravity on growth of woody plants, broad leaved trees, on earth. It is well known that in tilted broad leaved trees, tension wood formed in the secondary xylem causes negative gravitropism. Gibberellin has been shown to induce tension wood in weeping branch, causing its upright growth. Recent study has shown that seedling of Japanese cherry tree grew on three dimensional clinostat, a device that simulates microgravity, grew at random angles, and that the formation of secondary xylem, as supporting tissue for upright growth, decreased. In the decreased xylem formation, the inhibition of the differentiation and development of fiber cell was clearly observed. These results suggest that in attitude control and morphogenesis of stem in woody plant, secondary xylem formation seriously relates to gravity on earth. In woody plant, the mechanism of gravity perception and the following signal transduction have not yet been elucidated, although the recent study reported the possibility that endodermal starch sheath cells and plant hormones may play some role in the mechanism. Space experiment is expected to study these problem.

著者

最上 善広 石井 淳子 馬場 昭次

出版者

日本宇宙生物科学会

雑誌

Biological Sciences in Space (ISSN:09149201)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.9, no.1, pp.17-35, 1995 (Released:2006-02-01)

参考文献数

28

被引用文献数

4 3

---

In order to get an insight into the cellular mechanisms for the integration of the effects of gravity,we investigated the gravitactic behaviour in Paramecium. There are two main categories for the model of the mechanism of gravitaxis; one is derived on the basis of the mechanistic properties of the cell (physical model) and the other of the physiological properties including cellular gravireception (physiological model). In this review article, we criticized the physical models and introduced a new physiological model. Physical models postulated so far can be divided into two; one explaining the negative gravitactic orientation of the cell in terms of the static torque generated by the structural properties of the cell (gravity-buoyancy model by Verworn, 1889 and drag-gravity model by Roberts, 1970), and the other explaining it in terms of the dynamic torque generated by the helical swimming of the cell (propulsion-gravity model by Winet and Jahn, 1974 and lifting-force model by Nowakowska and Grebecki, 1977). Among those we excluded the possibility of dynamic-torque models because of their incorrect the oretical assumptions. According to the passive orientation of Ni2+-immobilized cells, the physical effect of the static torque should be inevitable for the gravitactic orientation. Downward orientation of the immobilized cells in the course of floating up in the hyper-density medium demonstrated the gravitactic orientation is not resulted by the nonuniform distribution of cellular mass (gravity-buoyancy model) but by the for-aft asymmetry of the cell (drag-gravity model). A new model explaining the gravitactic behaviour is derived on the basis of the cellular gravity sensation through mechanoreceptor channels of the cell membrane. Paramecium is known to have depolarizing receptor channels in the anterior and hyperpolarizing receptors in the posterior of the cell. The uneven distribution of the receptor may lead to the bidirectional changes of the membrane potential by the selective deformation of the anterior and posterior cell membrane responding to the orientation of the cell in the gravity field; i.e. negative- and positive-going shift of the potential due to the upward and downward orientation, respectively. The orientation dependent changes in membrane potential with respect to gravity, in combination with the close coupling of the membrane potential and the ciliary locomotor activity, may allow the changes in swimming direction along with those in the helical nature of the swimming path; upward shift of axis of helix by decreasing the pitch angle due to hyperpolarization in the upward-orienting cell, and also the upward shift by increasing the pitch angle due to depolarization in the downward-orienting cell. Computer simulation of the model demonstrated that the cell can swim upward along the “super-helical” trajectory consisting of a small helix winding helically an axis parallel to the gravity vector, after which the model was named as “super-helix model”. Three-dimensional recording of the trajectories of the swimming cells demonstrated that about a quarter of the cell population drew super-helical trajectory under the unbounded, thermal convection-free conditions. In addition, quantitative analysis of the orientation rate of the swimming cell indicated that gravity-dependent orientation of the swimming trajectory could not be explained solely by the physical static torque but complementarily by the physiological mechanism as proposed in the super-helix model.

著者

山岸 明彦 矢野 創 奥平 恭子 小林 憲正 横堀 伸一 田端 誠 河合 秀幸

出版者

日本宇宙生物科学会

雑誌

Biological Sciences in Space (ISSN:09149201)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.21, no.3, pp.67-75, 2007 (Released:2007-12-26)

参考文献数

21

被引用文献数

15 13 2

---

TANPOPO, dandelion, is the name of a grass whose seeds with floss are spread by the wind. We propose the analyses of interplanetary migration of microbes, organic compounds and meteoroids on ISS-JEM. Ultra low density aerogel will be used to capture micrometeoroid and debris. Particles captured by aerogel will be used for several analyses after the initial inspection of the gel and tracks. Careful analysis of the tracks in the aerogel will provide the size and velocity dependence of debris flux. The particles will be analyzed for mineralogical, organic and microbiological characteristics. To test the survival of microbes in space environment, microbial cells will be exposed. Organic compounds are also exposed to evaluate the possible denaturation under the conditions. Aerogels are ready for production in Japan. Aerogels and trays are space proven. All the analytical techniques are ready.

著者

中村 輝子

出版者

日本宇宙生物科学会

雑誌

Biological Sciences in Space (ISSN:09149201)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.17, no.2, pp.144-148, 2003 (Released:2006-01-31)

参考文献数

11

被引用文献数

1 1

---

Using the weeping branch of Japanese flowering cherry tree and its woody stem of the seedling grown under simulated microgravity condition by three dimensional clinostat, it was elucidated that the morphogenesis of its secondary xylem supporting the plant itself to grow upward is seriously controlled by gravity on earth with a sedimentable amyloplast as its sensor. Space experiment of woody plant is expected to elucidate such problem.