An Overview of Lipid Biomarkers in Terrestrial Extreme Environments with Relevance for Mars Exploration.

ABSTRACT: Lipid molecules are organic compounds, insoluble in water, and based on carbon-carbon chains that form an integral part of biological cell membranes. As such, lipids are ubiquitous in life on Earth, which is why they are considered useful biomarkers for life detection in terrestrial environments. These molecules display effective membrane-forming properties even under geochemically hostile conditions that challenge most of microbial life, which grants lipids a universal biomarker character suitable for life detection beyond Earth, where a putative biological membrane would also be required. What discriminates lipids from nucleic acids or proteins is their capacity to retain diagnostic information about their biological source in their recalcitrant hydrocarbon skeletons for thousands of mil

SUBMITTER: Finkel PL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10150655 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature