What does GFAJ-1 stand for?

Give Felisa a Job
The GFAJ-1 bacterium was discovered by geomicrobiologist Felisa Wolfe-Simon, a NASA astrobiology fellow in residence at the US Geological Survey in Menlo Park, California. GFAJ stands for “Give Felisa a Job”.

What is Felisa Wolfe-Simon hypothesis?

In a response accompanying the Technical Comments, Wolfe-Simon and her co-authors point to work by others that suggests that these arsenic compounds would last longer when part of large biomolecules. Her group has proposed that the bacterium might sequester the arsenic compounds to protect them from breaking down.

Can we substitute arsenic for phosphorus?

Here, we present evidence that arsenic can substitute for phosphorus in the biomolecules of a naturally occurring bacterium. Arsenic (As) is a chemical analog of P, which lies directly below P on the periodic table. Arsenic possesses a similar atomic radius, as well as near identical electronegativity to P (5).

Is phosphorus based life possible?

When searching for “carbon-based” life, we need to pay attention to other elements too. Growth potential: there’s a reason that phosphorus is included in fertilizers.

Does this data alone prove that GFAJ-1 is able to use arsenate in place of phosphate Support your answer with reasoning what experiment needs to be done next?

A separate study by Marshall Reaves of Princeton University and colleagues confirms that GFAJ-1 is unable to grow in the absence of phosphate, and that arsenate alone is not enough to sustain the bacterium. The researchers detected no arsenic covalently bound to the DNA of GFAJ-1.

Is arsenic carbon based?

“Inorganic” arsenic compounds, on the other hand, do not contain carbon and are generally simple molecules, such as arsenic trioxide. These compounds are highly toxic.

Why is arsenic a good substitute for phosphorus?

Bacteria that survive and grow in environments that are high in arsenic might have DNA repair systems that help stabilize DNA that has incorporated aresnic as a substitute for phosphorus.

Is there life on earth that is not carbon based?

On Earth, all known living things have a carbon-based structure and system. Scientists have speculated about the pros and cons of using atoms other than carbon to form the molecular structures necessary for life, but no one has proposed a theory employing such atoms to form all the necessary structures.

Can our DNA exist without phosphorus?

Phosphorus: You Can’t Have Life Without It, at Least on Earth.

Could there be silicon based life?

So, the answer, at least for now, is no – although silicon can sometimes be used biologically as a sort of structural support (and there are some examples claiming silicon as an essential trace element) for carbon-based life – silicon-based life itself does not exist, as far as we know, because of the chemical and …