
We explore a hypothesis in which the detection of classes of lipid-like molecules with similar abundance-averaged lengths would constitute a biosignature for other worlds. This is based on the functional requirements of membrane molecules: they must have enough hydrophobic length to not diffuse away from the membrane, be capped by one or two hydrophilic polar groups, and also maintain a semipermeable membrane. Our hypothesis is that once membrane thickness is set in a biological system, it is very difficult to modify it, due to the necessity to redesign all the other associated molecules; the membrane thickness will be constant across all molecular classes that constitute membranes resulting from a common ancestor. In such a scenario, similar thickness values would thus constitute a biosignature and cross-correlate between different molecular classes. We tested this hypothesis by developing a simple method to use modeled lengths of lipid-like molecules to estimate the thicknesses of membranes formed by these molecules. We examined abundance patterns of four different classes of membrane molecules used by terrestrial life: fatty acids, glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraether lipids, carotenoids, and ladderanes from microbial isolates and environmental samples, as well as abiotic samples of fatty acids. We found that the modeled cell membrane thicknesses from each of these molecular classes were similar and gave results consistent with the observed values. From these results, we propose that our approach provides a framework to identify potential membrane component molecules as an agnostic biosignature. The power of our approach is that our method enables multiple molecular classes to be compared and provides increasing confidence of a biological detection.
Membrane Lipids, Cell Membrane, Fatty Acids, Exobiology, Carotenoids, Lipids, Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions
Membrane Lipids, Cell Membrane, Fatty Acids, Exobiology, Carotenoids, Lipids, Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions
| selected citations These citations are derived from selected sources. This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | 0 | |
| popularity This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network. | Average | |
| influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | Average | |
| impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network. | Average |
