So a high percentage of cells remained intact. Does that mean the fungi can reproduce on mars? Could they thrive?
Theres a lot of other factors, but to be very reductionist: in theory yes.
It depends on how accurately the environment was simulated, which includes things such as gravity, protection from cosmic rays(or lack thereof), potentially magnetic fields, light spectrum, etc. It’s very difficult to replicate all environmental factors in a lab.
But the biggest concern is that I doubt they have access to a food/energy supply, unless they are photosynthetic, and even that requires things such as oxygen and water which you would be hard pressed to find in a usable form of Mars.
Also, the soil contains perchlorates which are very bad for life as we know it.
Hey thanks for this very detailed and interesting answer! :)
Perchlorates in martian soil ?? potential source of energy and oxygen! Rule of thumb - if a reaction is thermodynamically favourable, but there’s some kinetic barrier, some microbes could evolve to exploit it. Life doesn’t have to be as we know it.
