Mars-like shock and chemical stress reveal ribonucleoprotein condensates as a key survival mechanism in yeast.
Life on Mars, whether in the distant past, today, or in the future, would face a range of severe environmental challenges. These include shock waves generated by meteorite impacts and the presence of perchlorates in the soil—highly oxidizing salts that disrupt hydrogen bonds and interfere with hydrophobic interactions.
To examine how living cells respond to such stresses, Purusharth I. Rajyaguru and colleagues conducted experiments using Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a yeast species widely used as a model organism. The researchers selected yeast partly because it has already been examined in previous space-related studies.
Across many forms of life, including yeast and humans, cellular stress triggers the formation of ribonucleoprotein (RNP) condensates. These RNA and protein-based structures help protect RNA molecules and influence how messenger RNAs are processed and used. Once stressful conditions subside, the RNP condensates, including those known as stress granules and P-bodies, break apart.
Simulating Martian extremes in the laboratory
To recreate Mars-like conditions, the team generated artificial shock waves using the High-Intensity Shock Tube for Astrochemistry (HISTA) at the Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad, India. Yeast exposed to shock waves reaching 5.6 Mach survived but showed reduced growth, and similar survival was observed in yeast treated with 100 mM sodium salt of perchlorate (NaClO4), a level comparable to concentrations found in Martian soils.
Yeast cells also survived exposure to the combined stress of shock waves and perchlorate stress. In both cases, the yeast assembled RNP condensates.
RNA condensates determine survival outcomes
Shock waves induced the assembly of stress granules and P-bodies; perchlorate caused yeast to make P-bodies but not stress granules. Mutants incapable of assembling RNP condensates were poor at surviving the Martian stress condition.
Transcriptome analysis identified specific RNA transcripts perturbed by Mars-like conditions. According to the authors, the results show the importance of yeast and RNP condensates in understanding the effects of Martian conditions on life.
Reference: “Ribonucleoprotein (RNP) condensates modulate survival in response to Mars-like stress conditions” by Riya Dhage, Arijit Roy, Bhalamurugan Sivaraman and Purusharth I Rajyaguru, 14 October 2025, PNAS Nexus.
DOI: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf300
IISc-ISRO Space Technology Cell (ISTC/BES/PR/479); Department of Science and Technology (CRG/2022/000594). Fund for Improvement of S&T Infrastructure program (DST-FIST), Ministry of Education, India, 501100004541.
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4 Comments
Life eats life – so you have to have a biological cycle – enough things to eat things that things have a reproducing food base – and the environment doesn’t kill them off. Then they can go right ahead and breed out of control turning Red Mars into the giant (and smelly) uninhabitable green-muck planet dumb people never thought about.
Where screeds and missives calling attention might give them pause, and their reputations would be permanently dashed, they’ll continue for funding because, in the end, that’s what their careers are about.
Im guessing this guy above me believes earth started out inhabiting fairies and unicorns that sprayed happy dust all over the planet to create what we know as life today
Of course it was, Chris – I’ve even seen TV documentaries about this – I think it was called “My Little Pony” . . . 🤣!!
People seem to imagine life is a simple thing and their easily formed ideas can simply be embarked upon. However, reality is endlessly complex and many things result of interactions. For instance, one can build a structure, foundations, walls, roof, etc – within which an hermetically sealed room has another room and with in that two more rooms, hanging curtains, controlled air and micron filtering, in which a sealed double work-station is attended by yours truly in moon-suit breathing apparatus doing ‘sterile’ work in which a petri dish is lifted for one second. Now while I did attain perfect sterility sometimes, not always. And even in a very well made lab, that one second allowed a few contaminants – which readily take over the food substrate in a completely out of control manner. Because in normal life, we have endless organisms – eating each other – achieving for our observations, an harmonious balance. It is a kind of illusion for humans because humans only think they see, what amounts to: the images their minds create. Anyway, that Permafrost on Mars could be a vast petri dish for a very few out of control, out of balance life forms. And it could get ugly. And that means science should have a serious argued protocol for visitation of other worlds. And the fact they haven’t bothered shows they are unsuited.