Red Rain Cells of Kerala,India-Still No Definite DNA

[Guest guest]

Red Rain Cells of Kerala, India - Still No Definite DNA © 2006 by Linda Moulton Howe August 19, 2006 Cardiff, Wales - Nearly half a century ago in 1960, a mathematics graduate student from Colombo, Sri Lanka, set off on his first international trip to Cambridge, England. His name is Chandra Wickramasinghe. He was fascinated by stars in the night skies, wondered about other life Out There, and his Cambridge University advanced degree was in Astronomy. His faculty supervisor was the famous Cambridge astronomer, Fred Hoyle. The two men had the curiosity and courage to look for other life in the universe by studying cosmic dust. Their controversial panspermia hypothesis was that the universe is teeming with at least microbial life, which can be transported from one cosmic location to another. In their collaboration, the two astronomers felt strongly that the double helix DNA found in all Earth life had been seeded here by comets or other cosmic bodies and that same DNA would be found in all life forms throughout the cosmos. Chandra Wickramasinghe, Ph.D. and S.C.D., Cambridge University, Prof. of Applied Math and Astronomy and Director of the Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales, U.K. Now, there is a discovery in rainwater that fell on the southwestern tip of India in the state of Kerala, which is challenging the idea that all DNA in this universe is the same. [ See 061506Earthfiles ] Five years ago in July 2001, Kerala residents said they heard a loud boom. Then red rain fell, which stained white clothes. News of the red rain mystery reached Dr. Godfrey Louis, a physicist at Mahatma Gandhi University in Kerala. He collected many test tubes full of the red-colored rainwater and put some of the odd liquid under a microscope. He was struck by the beautiful rust color of what seemed to be living cells. The cell diameters averaged 10 microns, a little bigger than a human blood cell, which is about 7 microns. Dr. Louis reported as many as 15 “daughter cells” budded within one “mother cell” and then broke out of the adult cell. That was clearly a process of replication. In normal Earth biology, replication requires the presence of DNA. But Dr. Louis could not find evidence of DNA in the multiplying cells in his test tubes. Eight months ago, in January of 2006, Dr. Louis contacted astrobiologist, Chandra Wickramasinghe, now at Cardiff University in Wales. Soon Prof. Wickramasinghe had some vials of the red rainwater to study and sent some to biologists at Sheffield University in England. America’s Cornell University also received some red rain samples to analyze isotopic ratios. Elements confirmed so far are hydrogen, silicon, oxygen, carbon, and aluminum. But, there still is no definitive confirmation of DNA, or what makes the cell walls red. This month on August 7 to 8, I was in the Microbiology Lab at Cardiff University to see the red rainwater for myself and to talk with Prof. Wickramasinghe and his graduate student, Nori Miyake. Nori has tried to break open the cells to amplify whatever DNA might be there. Nori showed me the pale pink rainwater in test tubes. You can see photographs at my news website, www.Earthfiles.com. At the top of the Headlines page is a hot link to this red rain report with photographs and microscopic images. Nori told me he has never seen such thick, hard cell walls, which he could only partially penetrate. He is concerned about contamination in the fluorescent techniques he tried, which indicate there might be DNA. But in his fluorescent research, there have been variables, which might be false positives. He does not even know if he ever extracted anything from the red cells because the walls were so thick and hard to break. Cardiff University Microbiology Lab - August 8, 2006 Norimune Miyake, Ph.D.-student, Astrobiology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales. Since Since March 2006, "Nori" has been trying to break into the thick-walled Kerala red rain cells to amplify whatever DNA might be there. So far, DNA confirmation has not happened. Photograph © 2006 by Linda Moulton Howe. Above and below: Nori shows red rain collected from Kerala, India, in 2001 by physicist Godfrey Louis, Ph.D., Mahatma Gandhi University. Photographs © 2006 by Linda Moulton Howe. Light Microscope - Single Red Rain Cell Norimune Miyake points to single red rain cell isolated in his light microscope,Microbiology Lab, Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales. Ten-micron-diameter Kerala red rain cell under light microscope.2006 photomicrograph courtesy Cardiff University. Norimune Miyake, Astrobiology Ph.D.-Student: "This is the light microscope image of the red rain sample. Here you can see single cell. This is a red rain cell. We have millions of those and I managed to photograph one single cell. Here you can see the upper surface of the cell. From the light microscope, what you can see is the color of these cells. Here you can see red color, or orange-red color. This is the cause of the color in the rain. YOU DON’T KNOW EXACTLY WHAT IS CAUSING THAT COLOR?No, it hasn’t been identified." DAPI-Stain Fluorescence: Is it DNA? Or False Positives?[ Editor’s Note: DAPI = 6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) to stain DNA, 3,3'- ... DAPI can be used on fixed or living cells, DiOC 6 must be used on living cells. ] DAPI-stained red rain cells. Foreground cell clearly shows four fluorescing "daughter cells" which have budded inside the "mother cell." But the red rain cells variably autofluoresced, confusing the issue of definite DNA. 2006 photomicrograph courtesy Cardiff University. " I stained the cells with a substance called DAPI, which fluoresces the DNA. Hopefully, if there is DNA, it could glow. It will stain and glow. I did get positive results. These are images of two cells after I stained and gave the light. Here you can see four daughter cells inside the mother cell do glow. So, I can say in these four daughter cells per cell, there appears to be concentrated DNA. But another thing is that I also saw that these red rain cells autofluoresce. That means without introducing the light, they glowed by themselves. [ Editor's emphasis.] But I have found that the red rain cells only glow in red color and not in blue color. If the DAPI does not bind to DNA, it will wash out. So, even if you give the light, it won’t glow. But if DAPI binds to DNA, it will stick there so if you give the light, DAPI will glow. Then you know DNA is there. THEN WHY IS THIS NOT PROOF THAT THERE IS DNA? Because I have shown in other research work that the red rain cells glow, autofluoresce, in other colors. They ought to fluoresce in blue color, but there is a possibility of interruptions we haven’t identified yet. Perhaps DAPI interrupts with autofluorescing mechanisms in the red rain. There is a possibility of such effect and that’s why we cannot definitely say there is DNA. THIS FLUORESCENCE HAS NOT PROVED ANYTHING ABOUT DNA IN THE RED RAIN CELLS? Not totally, not definitely. To get definite results of DNA, the best way is to break open the cells and get the DNA, PCR the DNA, and then sequence it. That would be a definite answer for DNA." [ Editor's Note: PCR = Polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which has become one of the most widely used techniques in molecular biology to produce relatively large numbers of DNA molecule copies from very small quantities of source DNA material - even when the source DNA is of relatively poor quality.] Thick Cell Wall of Red Rain Cell This photomicrograph (scale bar is 300 nanometers) shows a thick-walled red rain "cell containing 'daughters' - two have well-defined cell walls, while the third (paler) structure (lower right) might be a further daughter in the process of development." Photomicrograph courtesy Cardiff University. THE REASON WHY YOU HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO BREAK THOSE CELLS IS? I can show you now. We have images from the TM work. This TM image shows that the cell has a very thick wall. Using normal lyces techniques, I cannot break open these cell walls. That’s why I couldn’t get anything from inside. SO THESE ARE EXCEPTIONALLY THICK CELL WALLS IN THE RED RAIN? Yes. WHAT WOULD MAKE THE WALLS SO THICK? One possibility is a mechanism like spores in which the cell walls protect the inner cells. I haven’t found out what the cell walls are made of. IF THIS IS EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE FROM OUTER SPACE AND ENDS UP NOT HAVING DNA, WOULD THESE THICK WALLS PERHAPS BE PROTECTIVE FOR LIFE IN OUTER SPACE? Yes, it is possible. With the color and thick cell walls, the most toxic thing in outer space would be the radiations and solar energies. It is possible, these can protect the cells from that and keep them from drying out inside the cells. SO, WHAT MAKES THE RED COLOR IS STILL UNKNOWN, THE CELL WALLS ARE VERY THICK, AND DNA HAS NOT BEEN CONFIRMED? That's correct." The Cardiff lab director, David Lloyd, told me he thinks the rainwater cells might be some kind of Earth yeast cells, which also replicate by internal budding. He postulates that some kind of yeast rose up into the clouds over Kerala, multiplied into literally tons of cells, which then came down in the multiple rains. But Dr. Lloyd cannot explain why there would be red rains only in the summer of 2001, and none reported before or after – until July 2006. There was another red rainfall in July this year over Kerala, almost exactly five years to the day of the first red rain. In June, when I interviewed Prof. Wickramasinghe for Earthfiles and Dreamland, he was reluctant to give up on the red rain cells having recognizable Earth DNA. But by August 8th, his mind was opening to the possibility that his and Fred Hoyle’s panspermia theory might now have to accommodate other life in the universe that might not be exactly like Earth's. Interview: Chandra Wickramasinghe, Ph.D. and S.C.D., Cambridge University, Prof. of Applied Math and Astronomy and Director of the Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales, U.K.: “On the basis of the evidence that I’ve seen, I have to come on the side of an extraterrestrial origin for the red rain cells. I think the first injection of these cells into 2001, or even earlier than that, most likely came from space. IS IT FAIR TO SAY IF I SUMMARIZE THAT ON THE ONE HAND, WE HAVE THE SOUND OF THE BOOM THAT MIGHT RELATE TO AN INCOMING CHUNK OF ICE THAT COULD HAVE BEEN CARRYING SOMETHING THAT RESEMBLES YEAST CELLS, BUT IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE AND REPLICATED IN THE UPPER CLOUDS? OR IT WAS A RED YEAST FROM OUR EARTH THAT ROSE UP IN THE AIR FOR SOME REASON AND REPLICATED IN THE CLOUDS? THAT THOSE ARE THE TWO SPECULATIONS: ONE TERRESTRIAL AND ONE NON-TERRESTRIAL? I think those are the two contending theories that the sonic boom that was heard was a source of the red rain cells. Perhaps a small comet or piece of comet exploded and brought the material, either the whole of the material that went into the red rain, or a minute fraction that was then multiplied in the clouds. Alternatively the red rain was something that was just lofted up from the surface of the Earth, maybe from the trees and wind and so on. I personally find that almost incredible that these are Earth organisms that could have been lifted in such great quantities into the clouds. They don’t look like Earth organisms in the details that are available at the moment. There are some generic similarities to yeast cells, but doesn’t exclude yeast cells coming from outer space – a totally different yeast type cell with totally different DNA. Or maybe no DNA, as we still have to determine. So, I think there is a continuing puzzle. But between the two alternatives, an Earth-based origin and an origin from space, I would err on the side of an origin from space. Another Kerala, India, Red Rain in July 2006 http://www.earthfiles.com/news/news.cfm?ID=1129 & category=Science