Occurrence and preservation of ATP in Antarctic rocks and its implications in biomass determinations

Abstract

Abstract The low temperature and moisture availability in Antarctic rocks would seem to preclude the existence of any sizeable algal biomass. The very high levels of ATP associated with endplithic algal communities have led to speculation that the measured ATP largely represents accumulated exogenous material as well as living biomass. A method was developed to selectively hydrolyze free, extracellular ATP without affecting intracellular ATP. Use of this technique on Antarctic rock samples has led to the conclusion that the ATP found in endolithic communities exclusively reflects living material and not preserved, free ATP. From these measurements we concluded that the ATP biomass in a gram of rock is equivalent to that found in more temperate and favorable environments.