{"id":122653,"date":"2025-10-15T02:02:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T02:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/122653\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T02:02:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T02:02:13","slug":"bakers-yeast-can-survive-mars-like-stress-conditions-new-study-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/122653\/","title":{"rendered":"Baker\u2019s Yeast Can Survive Mars-like Stress Conditions, New Study Shows"},"content":{"rendered":"

Exploring the possibility of the survival of life under extraterrestrial conditions is an important goal of astrobiology. In a new study, scientists used baker\u2019s yeast, a powerful model organism, to assess the impact of Mars-like conditions; they observed that yeast survive shock waves and perchlorate treatment \u2014 two stressors relevant to Mars; further, yeast responds to Martian conditions by assembling conserved RNA-protein complexes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Model<\/a><\/p>\n

Model depicting the importance of RNP condensate in mediating survival under Mars-like stress condition. Image credit: Dhage et al., doi: 10.1093\/pnasnexus\/pgaf300.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith advances in space science and astrobiology, exploring the potential of Mars in supporting life forms is gaining significant attention,\u201d said Indian Institute of Science\u2019s Dr. Purusharth Rajyaguru and colleagues.<\/p>\n

\u201cMars offers a range of hostile environmental conditions that a potential life form would need to overcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThus, understanding its unique and challenging environmental conditions becomes important.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMartian stress conditions are characterized by the following: (i) high-intensity shock waves resulting from meteorite impacts, (ii) extreme temperature and pressure fluctuations, (iii) ionizing and solar UV radiations due to a thin atmosphere, and (iv) chaotropic agents like perchlorates.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese conditions pose a serious obstacle to the survival of potential life forms<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the study, the authors subjected Saccharomyces cerevisiae<\/a>, which is a widely used model yeast, to shock waves and perchlorates.<\/p>\n

They chose the yeast in part because it has already been studied in space.<\/p>\n

When stressed, yeast, humans, and many other organisms form ribonucleoprotein (RNP) condensates, structures made of RNA and proteins that protect RNA and affect the fates of mRNAs.<\/p>\n

When the stressor passes, the RNP condensates, which include subtypes known as stress granules and P-bodies, disassemble.<\/p>\n

Yeast exposed to 5.6 Mach intensity shock waves survived with slowed growth, as did yeast subjected to 100 mM sodium salt of perchlorate (NaClO4) \u2014 a concentration similar to that in Martian soils.<\/p>\n

Yeast cells also survived exposure to the combined stress of shock waves and perchlorate stress.<\/p>\n

According to the team, in both cases, the yeast assembled RNP condensates.<\/p>\n

Shock waves induced the assembly of stress granules and P-bodies; perchlorate caused yeast to make P-bodies but not stress granules.<\/p>\n

Mutants incapable of assembling RNP condensates were poor at surviving the Martian stress condition.<\/p>\n

Transcriptome analysis identified specific RNA transcripts perturbed by Mars-like conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe results show the importance of yeast and RNP condensates in understanding the effects of Martian conditions on life,\u201d the scientists concluded.<\/p>\n

Their paper<\/a> appears today in the journal PNAS Nexus.<\/p>\n

_____<\/p>\n

Riya Dhage et al. 2025. Ribonucleoprotein (RNP) condensates modulate survival in response to Mars-like stress conditions. PNAS Nexus 4 (10): pgaf300; doi: 10.1093\/pnasnexus\/pgaf300<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Exploring the possibility of the survival of life under extraterrestrial conditions is an important goal of astrobiology. In…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[1204,74653,18,30661,41303,19,74654,17,1203,42196,74655,170,74656,7173,74657,74658,133,74659,10214,27235,13383,55764],"class_list":{"0":"post-122653","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-planet","9":"tag-bakers-yeast","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-fungi","12":"tag-fungus","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ionizing-radiation","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-mars","17":"tag-meteorite","18":"tag-perchlorate","19":"tag-protein","20":"tag-ribonucleoprotein","21":"tag-rna","22":"tag-saccharomyces","23":"tag-saccharomyces-cerevisiae","24":"tag-science","25":"tag-shock-wave","26":"tag-solar-system","27":"tag-temperature","28":"tag-uv","29":"tag-yeast"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}