Astrobiology / life detection
2 workflows · 2014–2023
Astrobiology / life detection: Peptide biosignatures, where nothing about the target sequence can be assumed in advance. 2 catalogued workflows and 2 papers.
Peptide biosignatures, where nothing about the target sequence can be assumed in advance.
| Workflows | 2 |
| Papers | 2 |
| Authors | 26 |
| Active | 2014-01-15 to 2023-06-01 |
Workflows (2)
- Abiogenic glutamic acid homo-peptide sequencing (2014): De novo sequencing characterised peptides formed abiotically from glutamic acid, including sodium and potassium substitutions, in an origin-of-life model reaction.
- CORALS peptide biosignature detection (2023): Laser desorption mass spectrometry workflow for detecting and sequencing short peptides as candidate biosignatures on icy ocean worlds such as Enceladus, demonstrated on the CORALS spaceflight prototype: a pulsed UV laser source feeding an Orbitrap mass analyser at ultrahigh mass resolving power and accuracy. Targets the 3-mer and 4-mer peptides found enriched in the psychrophile Colwellia psychrerythraea, on the premise that life persisting in cryogenic extraterrestrial brines might converge on a similar set. Adding silicon nanoparticles raises ionisation efficiency and improves mass resolving power and accuracy by suppressing metastable decay, which is what makes peptide de novo sequencing feasible; protonated peptides, their dimers and metal adducts are all detected. Sequencing rather than database matching is the only option available here, since no reference proteome exists for an unknown organism.
Papers (2)
- Application of de novo sequencing tools to study abiogenic peptide formations by tandem mass spectrometry. The case of homo‐peptides from glutamic acid complicated by substitutions of hydrogen by sodium or potassium atoms (2014, Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, peer-reviewed)
- Detection of Short Peptides as Putative Biosignatures of Psychrophiles via Laser Desorption Mass Spectrometry (2023, Astrobiology, peer-reviewed)
Where the work happened
France, Germany, Russia, USA