The Russian scientists successfully
drilled through to the lake last year
Russian scientists
have claimed the discovery of a new type of bacterial life in water
from a buried Antarctic lake.
The researchers have been studying samples brought up from Vostok
- the largest subglacial lake in Antarctica.
Last year, the team drilled through almost 4km (2.34 miles) of
ice to reach the lake and retrieve samples.
Vostok is thought to have been cut off from the surface for
millions of years.
This has raised the possibility that such isolated bodies of
water might host microbial life forms new to science.
"After putting aside all possible elements of contamination, DNA
was found that did not coincide with any of the well-known types in
the global database," said Sergei Bulat, of the genetics laboratory
at the St Petersburg Institute of Nuclear Physics.
"We are calling this life form unclassified and unidentified," he
explained.
Dr Bulat added that close attention was focused on one particular
form of bacteria whose DNA was less than 86% similar to previously
existing forms.
Lake Vostok is situated in one of
the most inhospitable places on Earth
"A level of 90% usually means that the organism is unknown."
However, other researchers said the data needed to be carefully
verified by other experts before the claims could be confirmed.
The Vostok drilling project took years to plan and implement. The
lake's location in the heart of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet makes
it one of the most inhospitable environments on the planet.
It is the place where thermometers recorded the lowest ever
temperature on Earth - minus 89C on 21 July 1983.
Vostok Station was set up by the Russians in 1956, and their
seismic soundings soon suggested there was an area of liquid
underneath all the ice. However, it was only in the 1990s that
British scientists, with the help of radar, were able to determine
the full extent of the sub-glacial feature.
With an area of 15,000 square km and with depths reaching more
than 800m, Lake Vostok is similar in size to Lake Baikal in Siberia
or Lake Ontario in North America.
The US recently broke through into another Antarctic lake -
Whillans. They have also reported the discovery of microbial life in
the lake waters. But Lake Whillans is thought by some to have been
less isolated than Vostok.
A British expedition to drill through 3km (1.8 miles) of
Antarctic ice into Lake Ellsworth was called off late last year
after engineers were unable to join the main borehole with a
parallel hole that was to be used to recover drilling water.
Paul.Rincon-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk
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