Fig. 5: Radiation induces a significant reduction in the total mean amount of nucleobases and in the mean fragment length in the microbialite and oxide iron formation cases.
From: Fragmented deoxyribonucleic acid could be extractable from Mars’s surface rocks
Mean and standard deviation of (left) the total nucleobase content (T) and sequence length (L), and (right) the quality factor (Q) and GC% content for all samples and the blank. In the microbialite and oxide iron formation samples, radiation exposure clearly causes DNA fragmentation and nucleobase destruction. In the microbialite samples, radiation exposure clearly reduces Q and GC%.
