UV irradiation experiments under simulated martian surface conditions: Bio-effects on glycine, phage T7 and isolated T7 DNA

Mars is considered as a main target for astrobiologically relevant exploration programmes. In order to explain the non-detection of organic material to a detection level of several parts per billion (ppb) by the Viking landers, several hypotheses have been suggested, including degradation processes occurring on the martian surface and in the martian soil and subsurface. UV exposure experiments have been performed in which thin layers of glycine ( 300 nm), and aqueous suspensions of phage T7 and isolated T7 DNA were irradiated with a Deuterium lamp and for comparison with a Xenon arc lamp, modified to simulate the solar irradiation on the surface of Mars (MarsUV). The glycine sample was subjected to 24 hours of irradiation with MarsUV. The results of this glycine experiment show a destruction rate comparable to the results of previous experiments in which thin layers of glycine were irradiated with a deuterium lamp (ten Kate et al., 2005, 2006). After exposure of different doses of simulated Martian UV radiation a decrease of the biological activity of phages and characteristic changes in the UV absorption spectrum have been detected, indicating the UV damage of isolated and intraphage T7 DNA. The results of our experiments show that intraphage DNA is 4 times more sensitive to simulated martian UV and deuterium lamp radiation than isolated T7 DNA. This result indicates the significant role that phage proteins play in the UV damage. The effect of simulated martian radiation is smaller than the biological defects observed after the exposure with a deuterium lamp for both cases, in intraphage and isolated DNA, despite of the 100 times larger intensity of the MarsUV lamp. The detected spectral differences are about ten times smaller; the biological activity is about 3 - 4 times smaller, indicating that the shorter wavelength UV radiation from the deuterium lamp is more effective in inducing DNA damage, irrespective of being intraphage or isolated.