A collaborative symposium on geoelectrochemistry, geoelectrobiology, early life, and astrobiology gathered experts from Japan and China from 23-25 August 2021, online. The virtual symposium was funded under the CAS-JSPS Bilateral Meeting Grant programme to further the international scientific exchanges between Japan and China, jointly organised by ELSI and collaborators from The Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IDSSE, CAS). 

The field of astrobiology is very interdisciplinary and requires the collaboration of biologists, biochemists, planetary scientists, and researchers in many more fields. Recently it has been proposed that electrochemical and electrobiological processes, some of which are catalysed by geological minerals in the deep sea, may have been important for the origin of life on Earth. In particular, electrochemistry drives chemical and biochemical reactions and processes, such as how electrolithoautotrophic (electricity consuming) microbes grow in electrochemical conditions. Research led by the Nakamura and McGlynn Labs of Tokyo Institute of Technology (all members of this seminar) found that electrical currents are generated in deep-sea hydrothermal vents passing through geological structures like mineral surfaces, suggesting that biochemical processes important to the origin of life could have been catalysed directly by geoelectrocatalysts, which could have been abundant on early Earth especially in the deep sea. Rather than just a biochemical mechanism, the significance of electrobiological and electrochemical processes can be linked to the initial emergence of life on Earth.

Thus, to determine the best way to simulate primitive geoelectrocatalysis in the lab and the field to understand the emergence of the first biologies, the scientific collaborators organised a joint seminar to deepen the crossover between deep-sea biology, geochemistry, electrochemistry, origins of life, and astrobiology. Using the unique skills of deep-sea biologists, the organisers sought to discuss these novel electro-based processes in the context of deep-sea life, i.e., life which has not been subjected to frequent evolutionary cycles as surface life has. In addition, prebiotic chemists and planetary scientists also joined the discussion to frame the prebiotically plausible chemical inventory and repertoire on early Earth and constrain the potential of such processes on a planetary scale.

Online gathering of the participants.

The symposium covered the following key points:
  1. Modern geoelectrochemical organic syntheses and electrobiological processes.
  2. Current knowledge of deep-sea biochemistries/geologies and discussion on electrobiological and geoelectrochemical processes in deep-sea organisms and geological formations, respectively.
  3. How to simulate possible ancient geoelectrochemical, geobiological, and chemical processes in the lab in the context of origins of life.
  4. Connection between ancient geochemistry/geobiology to extraterrestrial geologies to discuss future astrobiological life detection missions on other planetary bodies.

The symposium featured speakers from China, Japan and the USA and also heavily focused on discussions as well, which were directed effectively by speakers providing prompts reflecting critical questions from their expertise areas as key questions to the participants. Organisers worked on archiving and documenting the outcome of the symposium via cataloguing the prompts, discussion outcomes, some of the presentations, and slides.

“We hope to follow up by holding an in-person meeting in 1-2 years in China or Japan, joint proposals (CAS-JSPS or other programs) for further exchanges or a joint training school in astrobiology,” said Yamei Li (ELSI), organiser. “All of the meeting organisers were early-career researchers, and we believe that there is ample room and energy for expansion and bilateral collaborations in the future, not just between researchers in Japan and China, but around greater Asia as well,” adds Tony Z. Jia (ELSI), organiser.

The joint symposium was funded through CAS-JSPS Bilateral Meeting Grant and organised by Tony Z. Jia and Yamei Li representing ELSI, Japan, and Maggie CY Lau Vetter and Philip Vetter, representing IDSSE, CAS, China. 

Key organisers of the symposium.