[meteorite-list] DNA Discovered, Algae Cultured From 'Red Rain'

From: Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Jun 7 11:21:15 2006
Message-ID: <007101c68a05$39b683d0$0721e146_at_ATARIENGINE>

Hi, All,


    Well, if this report is correct and there's no haemoglobin,
we can all stop feelin' sorry for the bleedin' bats. (It seemed
so plausible, and the visual resemblance of the cells was very
striking. There's a lesson here about evidence castles built
on sand. I get it.) However, it seems that contradictory
conclusions are still coming out here.

    The test that Louis performed for DNA is well known, hard
to screw up and was the one piece of his data I DIDN'T doubt.
Yet Sheffield comes up with a positive stain test. I assume that
Cardiff performed polymerase chain reaction (tests "that try
to amplify specific DNA sequences"). This technique increases
the number of fragments of simple sequences by the millions, and
in a few hours it can produce over a billion copies of each fragment:
http://www.accessexcellence.org/RC/AB/IE/PCR_Xeroxing_DNA.html

    It is difficult to imagine that if there were ANY DNA sequences
present, PCR would not bring them forward in big numbers. Yes, it
could be, as Wickramasinghe says, "unusual" DNA. But you have to
understand, there is no such thing as "unusual" DNA. You, me, the
oak tree, pond scum -- all DNA is as alike as peas in a terrestrial
pod, one language, different messages. As I'm sure Wickramasinghe
knows, "unusual" means "not of this world." (Faith is touching, isn't it?)

    At this point, I have to say a negative PCR would be more definitive
than a positive stain. Having gotten myself engaged by the mystery, I
hope all kinds of labs and disciplines pile on this thing; I'd like to know
what's going on. It's still a mess. "The Tropical Botanic Garden and
Research Institute in Kerala, who say they have cultured the cells and
grown Trentepohlia, an alga common in Kottayam." Yet Sheffield and
Cardiff both say "no chloroplasts," hence not algae. Not fungi. Not
erythrocytes. The chloroplast finding is self-evident, by the way; all
chloroplasts contain DNA. No DNA = no chloroplasts.

    What is probably needed is more sophisticated microbiology. What
if these cells are prokatyotes (they're in the size range); has that been
considered? The DNA in prokayotes is circular and even in plasmid rings.
Are these tests adequate to deal with that? (I've been trying to find out,
without success.) I do note that circular DNA with an odd number of
turns to the helix forms a single DNA molecule rather than a pair. Would
PCR work on that? Also been searching without luck to find out if there
are any other DNA-less cells in any species of anything besides red
blood cells. Anybody know? PCR only works with fragments of DNA.
If heat is insufficient to break up the DNA being tested, there will be
no result. What if they're extreme thermophiles? (Louis claimed they
were unaffected when heated to 300 C.)

    More questions, fewer answers. Back to Square One.


Sterling K. Webb
-------------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Baalke" <baalke_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
To: "Meteorite Mailing List" <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 06, 2006 10:14 AM
Subject: [meteorite-list] DNA Discovered, Algae Cultured From 'Red Rain'


>
> http://www.newscientistspace.com/article/mg19025453.100-red-rain-puzzle-is-still-up-in-the-air.html
>
> 'Red Rain Puzzle is Still Up in the Air'
> by Hazel Muir
> New Scientist
> March 31, 2006
>
> When red rain fell over southern India in 2001 it was
> sensationally suggested that the red particles in the rain could
> be alien microbes. Now, after weeks of analysis at two labs in
> the UK, microbiologists are still struggling to identify them.
> It sounds like an episode of The X-Files, but a down-to-Earth
> explanation is looking the more likely outcome.
>
> Astronomer Chandra Wickramasinghe is studying the cells with
> microbiologists at Cardiff University. "As the days pass, I'm
> getting more and more convinced that these are exceedingly
> unusual biological cells," he says.
>
> The red rain fell sporadically over Kerala during two months in
> 2001. Godfrey Louis, a physicist at Mahatma Gandhi University in
> Kottayam in Kerala, examined the red particles and, unable to
> find DNA, suggested that they might be alien microbes that had
> fallen to Earth on a comet (New Scientist, 4 March, p 34).
>
> If so, they would be the best evidence to date of "panspermia",
> the theory that primitive life forms fly around interplanetary
> space on chunks of rock and ice. However, other scientists who
> read Louis's report thought the red particles could be
> terrestrial cells that had somehow blown up into the rain
> clouds. Suggestions included fungal spores, red algae and
> mammalian red blood cells.
>
> At the end of February, Louis sent samples of the red rain to
> Wickramasinghe, a champion of the panspermia theory. His team
> has analysed the samples, as has a second team led by Milton
> Wainwright, a microbiologist at the University of Sheffield.
>
> Both teams say microscopy confirms that the particles are
> biological cells. They are not red blood cells because they do
> not contain haemoglobin. It's unlikely that they are fungal
> spores or red algae. They don't contain chitin, a key component
> of fungal cell walls. Nor do they contain the chloroplasts, the
> organelles in which photosynthesis takes place, that are typical
> of red algae.
>
> But they do, after all, contain DNA. A simple DNA stain test in
> Sheffield came back positive. However, more rigorous tests in
> Cardiff that try to amplify specific DNA sequences have so far
> failed. "That doesn't mean there's no DNA, it means that the DNA
> is probably unusual," Wickramasinghe suggests.
>
> The red cells have unusually thick, sturdy walls, and some
> contain daughter cells that Wainwright says are puzzling. He
> stresses, though, that the cells could be ordinary, terrestrial
> organisms he is not familiar with.
>
> Something like the Trentepohlia alga, perhaps? That's the
> conclusion of microbiologists at the Tropical Botanic Garden and
> Research Institute in Kerala, who say they have cultured the
> cells and grown Trentepohlia, an alga common in Kottayam, where
> the first report of the red rain originated. Formal DNA
> identification awaits.
>
> Both UK teams will continue DNA tests and say they will not
> release full details of their results until they have been peer
> reviewed. Sadly for X-Files fans, a terrestrial origin is
> looking more likely. How the cells fell as rain, that's the
> mystery.
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Received on Wed 07 Jun 2006 03:37:26 AM PDT