Extremophile thermophilic

Could it be the case that microorganisms, like the suspected fossils in the Mars meteorite ALH 84001, exist in the Martian soil This question leads to the counterquestion as to whether it has previously been possible to detect and study life (primitive life forms) under highly extreme conditions. Are there such conditions on Earth We now know quite a lot about extremophiles such as the thermophilic, halophilic and hyperthermophilic microorganisms. 

Slobodkin A, Wiegel J. 1997. Fe(III) as an electron acceptor for H2 oxidation in thermophilic anaerobic enrichment cultures from geothermal areas. Extremophiles 1 106-9. 

Escherichia coli (Niehaus, 1999). Whereas halophiles (Margesin, 2001) and piezo-philes (Abe, 2001) have attracted attention, the main aspect of interest for biotechnological application remains thermal stability, focusing interest on thermophiles or even hyperthermophiles. Increase in temperature has a significant influence on the bioavailability and solubility of organic compounds (not on the solubility of Oz, however, which is nearly zero at extremophilic temperatures ). Current applications of extremozymes include ... 

Madigan MT, Marrs BL (1997) Extremophiles. Sci Am, April 1997, pp 82-87 Madigan MT, Oren A (1999) Thermophilic and halophilic extremophiles. Curr Opin Microbiol 2 265-269... 

Proteins from extremophilic organisms, particularly thermophiles, have been the subject of intensive research in recent years. This work has been the subject of numerous reviews (Jaenicke and Bohm, 1998 Russel and Taylor, 1995 Vogt and Argos, 1997 Gerday et al., 1997 Somero, 1995), and we will make no attempt at an in-depth summary. We will confine ourselves to briefly stating the major trends identified thus far. Explaining these trends becomes complicated because the many weak interactions that determine enzyme stability and activity have complex temperature dependencies (see Section II). And evolution injects considerable confusion beyond the laws of physical chemistry. 

Summit, M., Scott, B., Nielson, K., Mathur, E., and Baross, J.A. 1998. Pressure enhances thermal stability of DNA polymerase from three thermophilic organisms. Extremophiles 2 339-345. 

Extremophilic bacteria employ mechanisms analogous to those used by thermophilic members of the Archaea. In some anaerobic thermophilic bacteria, C30 dicarboxylic acids may provide 10-20% of the acyl chains of membrane lipids (Langworthy and Pond, 1986). These acyl chains may be esterified to a glycerol molecule at each end of the C30 chain to form a membrane-spanning lipid with a high ability to stabilize the membrane against thermal perturbation. 

Almatawah, Q.A., Cramp, R., and Cowan, D.A. 1999. Characterization of an inducible nitrilase from a thermophilic bacillus. Extremophiles, 3 283-91. 

Extremophilic microbes (extremophiles) abound in extreme habitats, such as acidophiles (acidic sulfurous hot springs), alkalophiles (alkaline lakes), halophiles (salt lakes), piezo (baro)- and (hyper)thermophiles (deep-sea vents), ° and... 

A number of smaller enzyme-producing companies focus on thermophilic micro-organisms (and other extremophiles) to identify and produce new types of thermostable enzymes Unitika, Pacific Enzymes, Genis, Diversa (formerly Recombinant BioCatalysis), and others. One extremozyme that has already found commercial application is the heat-stable DNA polymerase from Thermus aquaticus (Taq-polymerase) that gave rise to the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Using PCR, nucleic acids or segments of DNA can by amplified in vitro without having to replace the enzyme after each amplification cycle when the DNA template is denatured by heat. A number of new hyperthermophilic enzymes with temperature optima between 75 and 118°C have been described in the past few years [81], such as... 

Mandal AK, Cheung WD and Arguello JM (2002) Characterization of a thermophilic P-type Ag /Cu -ATPase from the extremophile Archaeo-globusfulgidus. J Biol Chem 277 7201-7208. 

We isolated the various microorganisms by using conventional isolation techniques from the sea mud. The amount of non-extremophiles was 2.2 x 10 - 2.3 x 10 colonies per gram of dry sea mud (/g of DSM) and about 1% of the isolates from the land. The frequencies of the alkaliphiles and the thermophiles were about 0.67% and 1.7%, almost same as that of the isolates from the land . The barophiles were isolated at the amount of 5-10 colonies /g of DSM. The amylase or protease producers were isolated. The numbers of the amylase producer was... 

Carr, J.F., Gregory, S.T., and Dahlberg, A.E. (2014) Transposon mutagenesis of the extremely thermophilic bacterium Ihermus thermophilus HB27. Extremophiles, 19, 221—228. 

We thank the many collaborators and coauthors cited in the reference list, who contributed decisively to our knowledge on solutes from thermophiles and hyperthermophiles. This work was supported by the European Community Biotech Programme (Extremophiles as Cell Factories, BIO4-CT96-0488), and by PRAXIS XXI and FEDER, Portugal (PRAXIS/2/2.1/BIO/1109/95). 

For most forms of life, physiological conditions correspond to temperatures of about 25 C, atmospheric pressures of about 1 bar, and osmotic pressures of about 5 bar. Such organisms are called mesophillic. Besides these, there are also extremophilic forms of life which can only exist under extreme conditions. What are known as thermophilic organisms can occur in hot springs, deserts, and compost heaps and these can withstand... 

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