Publications by authors named "Miguel Fernandez-Martinez"

Due to its extreme conditions, microbial life in the Atacama Desert is known to survive in well-protected micro-habitats (hypolithic, endolithic, etc.), but rarely directly exposed to the environment, that is, epilithic habitats. Here we report a unique site, La Portada, a cliff confronting the Pacific Ocean in the Coastal Range of this desert, in which the constant input of water provided by the sea spray allows for the growth of a black-colored epilithic subaerial microbial ecosystem.

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In the search for life in our Solar System, Mars remains a promising target based on its proximity and similarity to Earth. When Mars transitioned from a warmer, wetter climate to its current dry and freezing conditions, any putative extant life probably retreated into habitable refugia such as the subsurface or the interior of rocks. Terrestrial cryptoendolithic microorganisms ( those inhabiting rock interiors) thus represent possible modern-day Mars analogs, particularly those from the hyperarid McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica.

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  • * During the 2019 NASA ARADS campaign, the SOLID-LDChip was used on a rover to autonomously search for molecular biomarkers in soil samples drilled up to 80 cm deep.
  • * Results showed a rich microbial community and highlighted the chip’s effectiveness, paving the way for future missions focused on life detection in the Solar System.
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Identifying unequivocal signs of life on Mars is one of the most important objectives for sending missions to the red planet. Here we report Red Stone, a 163-100 My alluvial fan-fan delta that formed under arid conditions in the Atacama Desert, rich in hematite and mudstones containing clays such as vermiculite and smectites, and therefore geologically analogous to Mars. We show that Red Stone samples display an important number of microorganisms with an unusual high rate of phylogenetic indeterminacy, what we refer to as "dark microbiome", and a mix of biosignatures from extant and ancient microorganisms that can be barely detected with state-of-the-art laboratory equipment.

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Paleobiological reconstructions based on molecular fossils may be limited by degradation processes causing differential preservation of biomolecules, the distinct taxonomic specificity of each biomolecule type, and analytical biases. Here, we combined the analysis of DNA, proteins and lipid biomarkers using 16S and 18S rRNA gene metabarcoding, metaproteomics and lipid analysis to reconstruct the taxonomic composition and metabolisms of a desiccated microbial mat from the McMurdo Ice Shelf (MIS) (Antarctica) dated ~1,000 years BP. The different lability, taxonomic resolution and analytical bias of each biomolecule type led to a distinct microbial community profile.

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Lost Hammer Spring, located in the High Arctic of Nunavut, Canada, is one of the coldest and saltiest terrestrial springs discovered to date. It perennially discharges anoxic (<1 ppm dissolved oxygen), sub-zero (~-5 °C), and hypersaline (~24% salinity) brines from the subsurface through up to 600 m of permafrost. The sediment is sulfate-rich (1 M) and continually emits gases composed primarily of methane (~50%), making Lost Hammer the coldest known terrestrial methane seep and an analog to extraterrestrial habits on Mars, Europa, and Enceladus.

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With no direct extant-life detection instrumentation included in a space mission since the 1970s, the advancement of new technologies to be included in future space missions is imperative. We developed, optimized, and tested a semi-automated prototype, the microfluidics Microbial Activity MicroAssay (μMAMA). This system metabolically characterizes and detects extant microbial life by way of metabolism-indicator redox dyes.

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Neuroimaging research seeks to identify biomarkers to improve the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), although clinical translation of findings remains distant. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (R-fMRI) is increasingly being used to characterize functional connectivity in the brain. Despite mixed results to date and multiple methodological challenges, dominant hypotheses implicate hyperconnectivity across brain networks in patients with ADHD, which could be the target of pharmacological treatments.

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Background: During magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound for essential or parkinsonian tremor, adverse events (headache, nausea/vomiting, or anxiety) may alter the outcome of the procedure despite being mostly transient and mild.

Objectives: Our aim was to analyze the relationship between demographic, procedural, and anesthetic characteristics with magnetic resonance/ultrasound-related events.

Methods: This was a retrospective study at the Clinica Universidad de Navarra of patients undergoing thalamotomy with magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound between September 2018 and October 2019.

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Article Synopsis
  • Nunataks are ice-free peaks in polar regions that endure extreme weather, with low temperatures in winter and high radiation in summer.
  • A study on Livingston Island's nunataks revealed distinct microbial communities among bedrock, soil, and loose rocks, showing how environmental factors influence microbial life.
  • Findings suggest that microbial activity is crucial for nutrient cycling in harsh conditions, and these insights may also inform our understanding of potential life on early Mars, which had similar environments.
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Martian lava tube caves resulting from a time when the planet was still volcanically active are proposed to contain deposits of water ice, a feature that may increase microbial habitability. In this study, we taxonomically characterized and directly measured metabolic activity of the microbial communities that inhabit lava tube ice from Lava Beds National Monument, an analogue environment to martian lava tubes. We investigated whether this environment was habitable to microorganisms by determining their taxonomic diversity, metabolic activity, and viability using both culture-dependent and culture-independent techniques.

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A pseudocontinuous arterial spin labeling (PCASL) sequence combined with background suppression and single-shot accelerated 3D RARE stack-of-spirals was used to evaluate cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) induced by breath-holding (BH) in ten healthy volunteers. Four different models designed using the measured change in PETCO2 induced by BH were compared, for CVR quantification. The objective of this comparison was to understand which regressor offered a better physiological model to characterize the cerebral blood flow response under BH.

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  • * A recent discovery in the Atacama revealed a clay-rich layer just below the surface that contains moisture and has a stable relative humidity of 78%, unlike the dry conditions above it.
  • * This moist layer is home to at least 30 species of salt-loving microorganisms, indicating that similar clay deposits on Mars could potentially harbor signs of past or present life that could be accessed by exploring rovers.
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Sulfate and iron oxide deposits in Río Tinto (Southwestern Spain) are a terrestrial analog of early martian hematite-rich regions. Understanding the distribution and drivers of microbial life in iron-rich environments can give critical clues on how to search for biosignatures on Mars. We simulated a robotic drilling mission searching for signs of life in the martian subsurface, by using a 1m-class planetary prototype drill mounted on a full-scale mockup of NASA's Phoenix and InSight lander platforms.

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  • * Experiments revealed that several types of bacteria and fungi can survive the extreme dryness and UV radiation of the desert, especially in the afternoons when dust is more likely to be airborne.
  • * The results imply that microbial life on Mars, whether currently living or previously existing, could have used a similar dust transport mechanism to navigate the planet and locate hospitable environments for survival and development.
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The Atacama Desert, the oldest and driest desert on Earth, displays significant rains only once per decade. To investigate how microbial communities take advantage of these sporadic wet events, we carried out a geomicrobiological study a few days after a heavy rain event in 2015. Different physicochemical and microbial community analyses were conducted on samples collected from playas and an alluvial fan from surface, 10, 20, 50, and 80 cm depth.

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Substrate-atmosphere interfaces in Antarctic geothermal environments are hot-cold regions that constitute thin habitable niches for microorganisms with possible counterparts in ancient Mars. Cerro Caliente hill in Deception Island (active volcano in the South Shetland Islands) is affected by ascending hydrothermal fluids that form a band of warm substrates buffered by low air temperatures. We investigated the influence of temperature on the community structure and metabolism of three microbial mats collected along the geothermal band of Cerro Caliente registering 88°C, 8°C, and 2°C at the time of collection.

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Potential benthic habitats of early Mars lakes, probably oligotrophic, could range from hydrothermal to cold sediments. Dynamic processes in the water column (such as turbidity or UV penetration) as well as in the benthic bed (temperature gradients, turbation, or sedimentation rate) contribute to supply nutrients to a potential microbial ecosystem. High altitude, oligotrophic, and deep Andean lakes with active deglaciation processes and recent or past volcanic activity are natural models to assess the feasibility of life in other planetary lake/ocean environments and to develop technology for their exploration.

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Geothermal springs support microbial communities at elevated temperatures in an ecosystem with high preservation potential that makes them interesting analogs for early evolution of the biogeosphere. The geysers field in the Atacama Desert has astrobiological relevance due to the unique occurrence of geothermal features with steep hydrothermal gradients in an otherwise high altitude, hyper-arid environment. We present here results of our multidisciplinary field and molecular study of biogeochemical evidence for habitability and preservation in silica sinter at .

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Objective: To evaluate the performance of a recently proposed motor unit action potential (MUAP) averaging method based on a sliding window, and compare it with relevant published methods in normal and pathological muscles.

Methods: Three versions of the method (with different window lengths) were compared to three relevant published methods in terms of signal analysis-based merit figures and MUAP waveform parameters used in the clinical practice. 218 MUAP trains recorded from normal, myopathic, subacute neurogenic and chronic neurogenic muscles were analysed.

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A previously established chronosequence from Pia Glacier forefield in Tierra del Fuego (Chile) containing soils of different ages (from bare soils to forest ones) is analyzed. We used this chronosequence as framework to postulate that microbial successional development would be accompanied by changes in functionality. To test this, the GeoChip functional microarray was used to identify diversity of genes involved in microbial carbon and nitrogen metabolism, as well as other genes related to microbial stress response and biotic interactions.

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