Scytonin, a novel cyanobacterial photoprotective pigment: calculations of Raman spectroscopic biosignatures

Abstract

The Raman spectrum of scytonin, a novel derivative of the parent scytonemin, is predicted from DFT calculations of the most stable, lowest energy, conformational structure. The diagnostic importance of this study relates to the spectral ability to discriminate between scytonemin and its derivatives alone or in admixture with geological matrices from identified characteristic Raman spectral signatures. The successful interpretation of biosignatures from a wide range of cyanobacterial extremophilic colonization in terrestrial and extraterrestrial scenarios is a fundamental requirement of the evaluation of robotic spectroscopic instrumentation in search for life missions. Scytonemin is produced exclusively by cyanobacterial colonies in environmentally stressed habitats and is widely recognized as a key target biomarker molecule in this enterprise. Here, the detailed theoretical analysis of the structure of scytonin enables a protocol to be established for the recognition of characteristic bands in its Raman spectrum and to accomplish the successful differentiation between scytonin and scytonemin as well as other scytonemin derivatives such as the dimethoxy and tetramethoxy compounds that have been isolated from cyanobacterial colonies but which have not yet been characterized spectroscopically. The results of this study will facilitate an extension of the database capability for miniaturized Raman spectrometers which will be carried on board search for life robotic missions to Mars, Europa, and Titan.