{"id":387377,"date":"2026-04-11T22:31:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T22:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/387377\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T22:31:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T22:31:09","slug":"microstructural-and-biochemical-constraints-on-cryptoendolithic-life-in-atacama-halite-implications-for-extreme-habitability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/387377\/","title":{"rendered":"Microstructural And Biochemical Constraints On Cryptoendolithic Life In Atacama Halite: Implications For Extreme Habitability"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                                    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Microstructural-and-biochemical.png\" alt=\"Microstructural And Biochemical Constraints On Cryptoendolithic Life In Atacama Halite: Implications For Extreme Habitability\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n                                                                                                            Graphical Abstract \u2014 Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy                                                                                                    <\/p>\n<p>Halite pinnacles from the Yungay area in the hyperarid core of the Atacama Desert harbor cryptoendolithic microbial colonies.<\/p>\n<p>A cross-section of a halite pinnacle was investigated using Raman spectroscopic imaging as the principal analytical technique, complemented by advanced fluorescence microscopy and CT-scan-based 3D visualization.<\/p>\n<p>Transversal section images were analyzed to track spatial variations in biomolecular responses, with particular emphasis on pigment composition.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, this study provides (a) new insights into complex halite architecture characterized by heterogeneous porosity, (b) the distribution of minor evaporitic components within the rock, specifically Ca-sulfate (gypsum) and Na-Ca sulfate (glauberite), (c) a characteristic umbrella-like pattern of scytonemin distribution revealed by both Raman and fluorescence imaging, and (d) changes in scytonemin Raman features that are interpreted as putative oxidative transformation of the pigment.<\/p>\n<p>Astrobiology, biosignatures, genomics,<\/p>\n<p>                                                                            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/keith_cowing.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager\/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na\u2019Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he\/him) \ud83d\udd96\ud83c\udffb<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Graphical Abstract \u2014 Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy Halite pinnacles from the Yungay area in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[184607,163804,165293,162402,184608,1863,184609,110711,184610,184611,184612,85,46,102291,165296,141,184613,184614],"class_list":["post-387377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-advanced-fluorescence-microscopy","tag-atacama-desert","tag-away-team","tag-biosignatures","tag-cryptoendolith","tag-desert","tag-evaporite","tag-extremophiles","tag-glauberite","tag-gypsum","tag-halite-pinnacles","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-raman-spectroscopy","tag-sample-return","tag-science","tag-scytonemin","tag-yungay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}