One-carbon moieties such as methyl groups (CH3-r) are found throughout the solar system, including in titan's atmosphere, the enceladus' plumes, and martian soils. Methyl groups can be synthesized…

This federal contract award, valued at $715,000.00, was granted to The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on May 1, 2025. The contract is for research on one-carbon moieties, such as methyl groups, which are found throughout the solar system and can be produced by both abiotic and biotic processes.

The goal of the research is to develop a generalized biosignature for methyl shuffling that could be applicable to detecting life on other planetary bodies. The project will utilize clumped isotopic analysis to better distinguish between biotic and abiotic methyl group formation. This method has shown promise in resolving the origins of methyl groups compared to traditional carbon-13 tracing. The contract does not have a set-aside designation, and the research is expected to be completed by April 30, 2028.

One-carbon moieties such as methyl groups (CH3-r) are found throughout the solar system, including in titan's atmosphere, the enceladus' plumes, and martian soils. Methyl groups can be synthesized by multiple abiotic processes, but are also made by biology. Life as we know IT can synthesize methyl groups DE novo, many organisms can assimilate them from the environment, and the last universal common ancestor may have been a methylotroph. Given the centrality and primacy of biologic methyl shuffling (i.e., onecarbon assimilation, reassembly, and export) on earth, IT is possible that life on other solar system bodies would need to make or modify methyl groups, too. Given the ubiquity of methyl groups in the solar system, a generalizable biosignature of methyl shuffling would be widely applicable. Stable isotopes can help constrain formation mechanisms. However, conventional tracers like carbon-13 are insufficient for distinguishing methyl group origins because carbon-13 fractionation factors of biologic and abiotic processes often overlap. To overcome this limitation, we will 1) add a novel isotopic dimension and 2) develop an isotopic framework that explicitly links methyl group reactants and products. Clumped isotopic compositions of one-carbon moieties have a "built-in" reference frame, are preserved during simple methyl transfer reactions, and change in predictable ways during simple reactions that create or destroy c-h bonds. When existing data are viewed in this framework, biology VS. Abiotic methyl groups are resolved. While encouraging, all existing biogenic data come from plants or methanogens and so are limited in scope.