Richard Honour

Richard Honour

Mar 23, 2015

Group 6 Copy 59
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Exobiology: Life on another planet

Additional cultures of Mycena cinerella mycelium, still in pure culture, still growing well on forest soil and organic debris with additional sources of toxic sewage sludge leachate, all of which was sterilized by autoclave, and still awaiting the production of mushrooms. Managing the in vitro cultures of M. cinerella (i.e., in the lab, outside of its normal habitat) is key to future culture medium extraction work. The fungus is producing and secreting enzymes that degrade the organic materials and toxins in the sludge, soil and debris, which then become nutrients for the fungus. The investigators at the NASA Astrobiology Institute at my alma mater, the University of California, Riverside, haven't seen anything quite like this planet of fungal mycelium.


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  • Michael Gaylor
    Michael GaylorBacker
    The images are fascinating Richard! Very "alien" indeed. The tie-in with your exobiolo is uber neat too. My students' interests have actually pulled me deeper into the astrobio realm the last couple of years and it has been quite exciting (tapping into childhood and early undergrad academic interests and all that). But, I'm afraid I hadn't considered this work through the lens of astrobio. Neat!
    Mar 24, 2015
  • Richard Honour
    Richard HonourResearcher
    Michael: While a Grad Student at UC Riverside I was asked to join the Cal Tech/JPL/NASA team for a long trip to Antarctica to work on ways to isolate extremophiles from, in, under and around glaciers and land forms, including from hot springs, ice layers, soils, quartz (greenhouse) crystals, peat bogs, coal seams, mummified seal carcasses, Sea Lion vaginas, and more. The point was to work on the question of how one would detect a microbial life form in the soils and microenvironments of other planets, all part of the Mariner Mars space probe program, way back then. The current work on sewage sludge reflects back to those early days of the 1970s when no one believed what we did and what we discovered. Detection in alien places thereafter focused on chemistry, for all of the right reasons. I find the sewage sludge microbiome as much of a mystery as exobiology pursuits, just closer to home – unfortunately. Sewage sludge microbiology and chemistry remain as much of a mystery today as does basic exobiology, other than that exobiology is being investigated by actual scientists. The chemistry and microbiology of sewage sludge are considered as being ‘unknowable,’ primarily because the microbiology and chemistry never cease reacting in situ, and the revelations would have a substantial adverse impact on the sludge industry, and a net positive impact on human healthcare and environmental health. We have work to do. Richard
    Mar 24, 2015

About This Project

The Precautionary Group

We've discovered a few new mushrooms thriving in this harsh environment of land-disposed sewage sludge in Snoqualmie, Washington. We're testing these mushrooms for new antimicrobial properties. Microbes that survive exposure to toxic sewage sludge engage adaptive mechanisms that transform toxins into secondary metabolites.

Blast off!

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