Miniature time-of-flight mass spectrometry, coupled with laser desorption/MALDI technology, is currently under development for identification of biosignatures of collected samples in landed planetary missions. MALDI mass spectra from Methanococuss jamnashii indicate that this detection scheme is quite valuable for both characterizing and identifying biosignatures of these critically important microbes for the study of exobiology. Microorganism growth in isotopically-enriched growth media, e.g., ~(13)C~(16)O_(2), ~(12)C~(18)O_(2) for a methane-producing extremophile, allows determination of the number of C and O atoms for an unknown biomolecule (i.e., type of biopolymer) from the observed mass shifts. We anticipate that this technology will be particularly valuable in the landed exploration missions to Mars.
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