Living organisms without air?

[VossistArts]

Im not terribly educated when it comes to science or biology. We were having conversation about life orginating from outside of earth in the beginning and the question came up, "are there any known organisms that can survive without air or some kind of gas?". I feel certain one of you can answer this for me

 

[cato]

I don't think so.

 

[Hercules Rockefeller]

are there any known organisms that can survive without air or some kind of gas?"

Yes, there are many species of anaerobic bacteria that survive happily without any air. They breakdown chemicals in their environment to derive their energy instead of burning sugar with oxygen (ie. respiration) like we do. Yeast can survive without any oxygen by a process known as 'fermentation'.

Hmmmmmm, beer.<P>

 

[2inquisitive]

Are you familiar with the theory of panspermia? That life may have been transported
to Earth by comets, asteroids, etc. from other star/planetary systems in the Milky Way.
But, it doesn't seem necessary as isolated microbial life is even found in rock miles
below Earth's surface. Also, an interesting fact was discovered by NASA's Apollo 12
mission to the moon. Bacteria survived 3 years in the vacuum of space and isolation
on the moon to be revived. A link:
http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast01sep98_1.htm

A link to a site about panspermia:
http://www.panspermia.org/bacteria.htm

 

[CharonZ]

They breakdown chemicals in their environment to derive their energy instead of burning sugar with oxygen (ie. respiration) like we do.

Well, don't want to be nitpicking but... ah what the heck I'll do . The actual catabolism of e.g. suger (glycolysis) is by itself anaerobic. Later during oxidative phosphorylation oxygen is needed, but this process is by itself not really part of sugar breakdown itself.


And yes, a whole lot of bacteria survive by fermentation. Some are even obligate anaerobic (like e.g. Clostridium) that is, oxygen is actually toxic to them.
Basically the first life forms were anaerobic, as the oxygen in our atmosphere was the product of the first photosynthetic organisms.

 

[Clockwood]

I always figured that a microorganism with a ~very~ unusual internal chemistry could live in space near absolute zero. It could perform very slow biological functions using sunlight and methane snow for fuel.

 

[Hercules Rockefeller]

Well, don't want to be nitpicking but... ah what the heck I'll do . The actual catabolism of e.g. suger (glycolysis) is by itself anaerobic. Later during oxidative phosphorylation oxygen is needed, but this process is by itself not really part of sugar breakdown itself.

Thanks. I'm no biochemist, that's for sure. <P>

 

[Hercules Rockefeller]

I always figured that a microorganism with a ~very~ unusual internal chemistry could live in space near absolute zero. It could perform very slow biological functions using sunlight and methane snow for fuel.

A bacterium doesn’t have to be too unusual (by Earth standards) to survive outer space; it merely needs to be able to sporulate. As a defense mechanism to adverse environmental conditions, some bacterial cells can form spores by secreting a hard almost impermeable outer shell and shutting down their metabolism – ‘suspended animation’ inside an armor casing, as it were. Bacterial spores are highly resistant to low (or absent) air pressure, extremes of temperature and radiation. Bacterial spores can exist practically indefinitely and will re-animate when the environmental conditions improve. I don’t see how an actively metabolizing bacterium could survive a trip into outer space, so as far as I am aware the panspermia idea relies on dormant spores imbedded deep inside rocks so that they are shielded from the heat of re-entry.

A common and ordinary <I>Streptococcal</I> species was recovered from a camera on the Surveyor 3 moon probe. The camera was recovered by Apollo 12 astronauts. These bacteria had survived for 31 months in the vacuum of the moon's atmosphere. Why? You guessed it - because <I>Streptococcal</I> species can sporulate.<P>

 

[cato]

are there any documented cases of things reproducing in space? or just surviving it? because that is a big difference. when I said "I don’t think so" before I though the question was meant more like: can the species survive, i.e. reproduce.

 

[valich]

NASA has conducted numerous experiment with embryo development in space. I'm sure they've done som reproduction experiments too. But you're probably referring to extraterrestrial? Reproducing? No. Surviving? Yes, some fossil evidence from meteors, but questionable.