ReviewAstrobiology2023
An Overview of Lipid Biomarkers in Terrestrial Extreme Environments with Relevance for Mars Exploration.
Review in Astrobiology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 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.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 47 citations in OpenAlex.
- Tectonic setting shapes microbial biosynthetic potential across global geothermal environments.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- A hidden pattern? Common polyextremophilic microbial adaptations in Icy Moon analog environments.Frontiers in astronomy and space sciences · 2026Article
- Thermophilic bacteria of the Arabian Gulf and their emerging biotechnological applications: current insights and future prospects.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Review
- Assessing cell survival and biosignature preservation of the extremely thermoacidophilic archaeonFEMS microbes · 2026Article
- Halotolerant bacteria from mangrove and restinga ecosystems in Camocim, Brazil: astrobiological relevance and biotechnological potential.Brazilian journal of microbiology : [publication of the Brazilian Society for Microbiology] · 2025Article
- The role of extremophile microbiomes in terraforming Mars.Communications biology · 2025Review
- Microbial ecology of acidic, biogenic gypsum: community structure and distribution of extremophiles on freshly formed and relict sulfate deposits in a hydrogen sulfide-rich cave.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2025Article
- Halophiles and Halotolerants: From Industry to Astrobiology.Current microbiology · 2025Review
- Exploring organic compound preservation through long-term in situ experiments in the Atacama desert and the relevance for Mars.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Temperature-Sensitive Lipids Reveal Intraspecific Diversity in Bacteria Isolated from an Ancient Antarctic Microbial Mat.Microbial ecology · 2025Article
- Survival of Filamentous Cyanobacteria Through Martian ISRU: Combined Effects of Desiccation and UV-B Radiation.Microorganisms · 2025Article
- Transformative strategies for saline soil restoration: Harnessing halotolerant microorganisms and advanced technologies.World journal of microbiology & biotechnology · 2025Review
- The salty tango of brine composition and UV photochemistry effects on Halobacterium salinarum cell envelope biosignature preservation.Communications biology · 2025Article
- The astrochemical evolutionary traits of phospholipid membrane homochirality.Nature reviews. Chemistry · 2024Review
- Sea spray allows for the growth of subaerial microbialites at the driest desert on Earth.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Marine Science Can Contribute to the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Life.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Immunoanalytical Detection of Conserved Peptides: Refining the Universe of Biomarker Targets in Planetary Exploration.Analytical chemistry · 2024Article
- Designing a novel method based on multiplex PCR for detecting various meat of birds in processed ground meat products.Food chemistry. Molecular sciences · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
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 millions of years, which is indispensable in the field of astrobiology given the time span that the geological ages of planetary bodies encompass. This work gathers studies that have employed lipid biomarker approaches for paleoenvironmental surveys and life detection purposes in terrestrial environments with extreme conditions: hydrothermal, hyperarid, hypersaline, and highly acidic, among others; all of which are analogous to current or past conditions on Mars. Although some of the compounds discussed in this review may be abiotically synthesized, we focus on those with a biological origin, namely lipid biomarkers. Therefore, along with appropriate complementary techniques such as bulk and compound-specific stable carbon isotope analysis, this work recapitulates and reevaluates the potential of lipid biomarkers as an additional, powerful tool to interrogate whether there is life on Mars, or if there ever was.
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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.