| Project/Area Number |
21K18646
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Review Section |
Medium-sized Section 17:Earth and planetary science and related fields
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| Research Institution | Tokyo Institute of Technology |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Project Period (FY) |
2021-07-09 – 2023-03-31
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| Project Status |
Completed (Fiscal Year 2022)
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| Budget Amount *help |
¥5,980,000 (Direct Cost: ¥4,600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,380,000)
Fiscal Year 2022: ¥4,030,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥930,000)
Fiscal Year 2021: ¥1,950,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥450,000)
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| Keywords | Biotic / Abiotic / Isotope / Isotopologue / Hydrocarbons / 13C-13C / Biomarker |
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| Outline of Research at the Start |
The purpose of the research is to develop and evaluate new isotopic tracers to distinguish abiotic molecules, especially hydrocarbons, from biotic molecules.
We will develop method and measure samples from various biotic and (putative) abiotic origins and evaluate the potential of these new tracers.
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
We were able to calibrate the method and evaluate its accuracy (Taguchi et al. 2021). We were able to do a systematic survey of 13C-13C signatures of biotic and abiotic processes. The data include simulation experiments (hydrocarbons cracking, methane polymerization with different energy sources) as well as natural gas samples from different locations provided by international colleagues and sampled by ourselves.
The data shows that (i) 13C13C signature can be a robust tracer of abiotic vs biotic processes (ii) it may help distinguishing mechanisms and/conditions of formation biotic and abiotic molecules. The data has been presented in various conferences and in an article in Nature Communications (Taguchi et al. 2022).
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| Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements |
There is currently no clear tracer for biological processes. Our method shows a clear distinction between molecules produced by biological and non-bioloigcal processes, which will be of tremendous help in the future for life exploration in the solar system and beyond.
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