I wonder if this changes the prospects for finding life in Mars somehow. IIRC, one thing making life in Mars difficult is the presence of oxidizing chlorates or peroxides in the surface. If we have a example of microorganisms developing extreme resistance to oxidation here on Earth, I think it improves the odds of some microorganisms still being able to thrive in Mars today.
Spores are highly resistant to oxidisation, but for a spore to produce more spores, it has to develop into a bacterium, and bacteria are not resistant to oxidation. This is not happenstance - spores can be resistant because they don't do anything, they are just simple storage containers for DNA and the minimal machinery to use it, whereas a complete bacterium has to do much, much more. So, this is not a model for life which can exist in a permanently oxidising environment.
