From: Jeffery Smith
Strange finding. They discovered a bacterium that uses arsenic in place of
phosphorus in its DNA. That is somewhat earth-shaking in the biology field, as
no other organism on earth has been able to substitute other elements in DNA.
Jeffery
On Nov 30, 2010, at 3:46 PM, Brian Walters wrote:
>
> http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/nov/HQ_M10-167_Astrobiology.html
Heard that on NPR this morning.
Did they sequence the DNA and actually identify arsenic in the locales
where phosphorus should be?
The story on the radio said some scientists criticize the findings
because they did not completely eliminate all phosphorus from the sample
and cannot positively say whether the bacterium uses arsenic in place of
phosphorus or is just highly adapted to the high level of arsenic found
in its "natural" environment.
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