ArticleAstrobiology2015
Nonphotosynthetic pigments as potential biosignatures.
Article in Astrobiology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed.
- Extracellular Yellow Pigments Produced byMicroorganisms · 2026Article
- Characterization of Amino Acid Nanolayers and Their Interactions under Simulated Planetary Conditions.ACS earth & space chemistry · 2025Article
- An untargeted exometabolomics approach to characterize dissolved organic matter in groundwater of the Samail Ophiolite.Frontiers in microbiology · 2023Article
- Review
- Earliest Photic Zone Niches Probed by Ancestral Microbial Rhodopsins.Molecular biology and evolution · 2022Article
- The case and context for atmospheric methane as an exoplanet biosignature.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Sulfur Cycling as a Viable Metabolism under Simulated Noachian/Hesperian Chemistries.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Extremophilic models for astrobiology: haloarchaeal survival strategies and pigments for remote sensing.Extremophiles : life under extreme conditions · 2020Review
- Exoplanet Biosignatures: Future Directions.Astrobiology · 2018Review
- Exoplanet Biosignatures: A Framework for Their Assessment.Astrobiology · 2018Review
- Exoplanet Biosignatures: A Review of Remotely Detectable Signs of Life.Astrobiology · 2018Review
- Exoplanet Biosignatures: At the Dawn of a New Era of Planetary Observations.Astrobiology · 2018Article
- Exoplanet Biosignatures: Understanding Oxygen as a Biosignature in the Context of Its Environment.Astrobiology · 2018Review
- Exoplanet Biosignatures: Observational Prospects.Astrobiology · 2018Review
- The Habitability of Proxima Centauri b: Environmental States and Observational Discriminants.Astrobiology · 2018Article
- The UK Centre for Astrobiology: A Virtual Astrobiology Centre. Accomplishments and Lessons Learned, 2011-2016.Astrobiology · 2018Article
- Reflections on OAstrobiology · 2017Article
- The First Space-Related Study of a Kombucha Multimicrobial Cellulose-Forming Community: Preparatory Laboratory Experiments.Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere : the journal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life · 2017Article
- Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Previous work on possible surface reflectance biosignatures for Earth-like planets has typically focused on analogues to spectral features produced by photosynthetic organisms on Earth, such as the vegetation red edge. Although oxygenic photosynthesis, facilitated by pigments evolved to capture photons, is the dominant metabolism on our planet, pigmentation has evolved for multiple purposes to adapt organisms to their environment. We present an interdisciplinary study of the diversity and detectability of nonphotosynthetic pigments as biosignatures, which includes a description of environments that host nonphotosynthetic biologically pigmented surfaces, and a lab-based experimental analysis of the spectral and broadband color diversity of pigmented organisms on Earth. We test the utility of broadband color to distinguish between Earth-like planets with significant coverage of nonphotosynthetic pigments and those with photosynthetic or nonbiological surfaces, using both 1-D and 3-D spectral models. We demonstrate that, given sufficient surface coverage, nonphotosynthetic pigments could significantly impact the disk-averaged spectrum of a planet. However, we find that due to the possible diversity of organisms and environments, and the confounding effects of the atmosphere and clouds, determination of substantial coverage by biologically produced pigments would be difficult with broadband colors alone and would likely require spectrally resolved data.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.