Extremophiles

A variety of microbes inhabit extreme environments. Extreme is a relative term, which is

viewed compared to what is normal for human beings. Extreme environments include high
temperature, pH, pressure, salt concentration, and low temperature, pH, nutrient
concentration and water availability, and also conditions having high levels of radiation,harmful
heavy metals and toxic compounds (organic solvents). Culture-dependent and culture-
independent (molecular) methods have been employed for understanding the diversity of
microbes in these environments. Extensive global research efforts have revealed the novel
diversity of extremophilic microbes. These organisms have evolved several structural and
chemical adaptations, which allow them to survive and grow in extreme environments. The
enzymes of these microbes, which function in extreme environments (extremozymes), have
several biotechnological applications. Antibiotics, compatible solutes and other compounds
obtainable from these microbes are also finding a variety of uses.

An extremophile (from Latin extremus meaning "extreme" and Greek philiā meaning "love")

are organism that thrives in physically or geochemically extreme conditions that are
detrimental to most life on Earth.

‘‘Indeed, many organisms that live in extreme environments have been unfairly neglected,
partly because of the difficulty in studying them and obtaining publishable results. Admittedly,
it is trying to study microorganisms whose growth media fills the laboratory with steam, or the
centrifuge heads with salt, or which grow so slowly that weeks, instead of hours, may be
required for experiments and whose genetics are unknown or almost impossible to study.

The study of the extremophiles has therefore important implications for our views on the origin
of life.Lastly, the understanding of the limits of life on Earth, as displayed by the extremophiles.
One of the reasons for the renewed interest in the extremophiles is the possibility to exploit
these organisms or processes performed by them in economically valuable processes. Notably
the thermophiles have yielded a range of enzymes used in biotechnology. The properties of
acidophilic metal-leaching microorganisms were used to recover copper and other metals from
metal ores long before the nature of the involvement of the bacteria was understood. A famous
example of extremophile-based biotechnology is the Taq polymerase used for the amplification
of DNA in the polymerase chain reaction. This enzyme obtained from the thermophile Thermus
aquaticus, isolated from a Yellowstone hot spring. Other examples are the exploitation of
exoenzymes of alkaliphilic bacteria in washing powders and other detergents. extremophiles
with their unusual properties, signifies both the abilities of these organisms to live in unusual
environments and the possibilities for their economic exploitation. Extremophiles are found in
all three domains of life: Archaea, Bacteria and Eukarya. When the Archaea (Archaebacteria)
were separated from the Bacteria as the third domain of life Archaea is the domain of the
extremophiles. Methanogens as extremophiles as well on the basis of their high sensitivity
toward molecular oxygen). Indeed, the microorganisms known to grow at temperatures above
1000C are all Archaea. Large numbers of thermophiles. Sequencing of 16S rRNA gene clones.
Most extremely halophilic microorganisms are all Archaea. Thermophiles are also found in the
domain Bacteria.

When discussing extremophilic microorganisms, we should not forget the

viruses/bacteriophages. Viruses are known to attack halophilic and thermophilic Archaea,
halophilic Bacteria, as well as other extremophiles.Such viruses also need to be adapted to the
conditions both in the environment as well as in the cytoplasm of their host.

EXAMPLE
TABLE.1 : Extremophiles and their environmental limits
Cold Environments and Psychrophiles
Cold environments are not at all rare on our planet. Most of the deeper waters of the oceans
that cover more than two-thirds of our planet have temperatures below 5 °C the Arctics and
the Antarctics. True psychrophiles are generally defined as such organisms that have their
optimum temperature below 15–20 °C. The most psychrophilic microorganism described in the
literature is probably Polaromonas vacuolata, grows optimally at 4 °C, with a minimum at 0
°Cand a maximum of 12 °C.
Activity of even the most psychrophilic microorganisms depends on the presence of liquid
water within the cell: when the cytoplasm becomes frozen, the cell may retain its viability, but
metabolic activity is no longer possible. The lowest temperature boundary enabling growth is
therefore determined by the freezing point of the intracellular water – a temperature that can
be lowered to some extent by the accumulation of organic and inorganic solutes that act as
‘‘antifreeze’’ agents.

Acidic Environments and Acidophiles

Environments with extremely low pH values are not very abundant.Acidic environments are
often associated with volcanic activity: hot sulfur springs, mud pots, etc. Another type of low pH
environments is that caused by microbial activity. Chemoautrophic oxidation of
sulfide,elemental sulfur, and other reduced sulfur compounds causes the formation of sulfuric
acid which acidifies the medium, and many of the organisms that perform the process have
their growth optimum in the low pH range. In mining areas in which sulfur-containing.

Acidification by such chemoauotrophic sulfur bacteria is exploited in mining operations for the
recovery of copper and other precious metals from sulfur-containing ores. Fermentations such
as the lactic acid fermentation may also decrease the pH of soils and aquatic, low pH had been
casued by chemoautotrophic activity.

Acidophilic microorganisms can be found in all three domains of life.Acidithiobacillus

thiooxidans (Bacteria) cannot grow at pH values above 4–6, and growth is still possible down to
pH 0.5.The pH minimum of the aerobic heterotroph Picrophilus species (Euryarchaeota) is even
lower: -0.06. With its growth optimum at pH 0.5, it is the most acidophilic organism known. In
addition it has thermophilic properties (optimum growth temperature: 600C). Above pH 4 lysis
occurs .Also among the Eukarya,acidophiles are found. The most acidophilic organisms known,
as it grows between pH 0 and 3 with an optimum at pH 1.

Basic Environments and Alkaliphiles

Alkaliphilic microorganisms are widespread in nature. Bacteria (e.g. species of the genus
Bacillus) that grow at pH 9–10 while being unable to grow at neutral pH can easily be isolated
from soils. High pH conditions are common in the surface layers of productive freshwater lakes
when CO2 becomes depleted during daytime photosynthesis, and many planktonic eukaryotic
algae as well as cyanobacteria are adapted to an existence at high pH, at least temporarily.
However, most true alkaliphiles known have been isolated from permanently alkaline lakes
(‘‘soda lakes’’) in which the high pH is caused by geological-geochemical rather than by
biological processes. Such lakes are found on all continents, examples being Mono Lake,
California. Alkaliphiles are thus found in each of the three domains of life: Archaea, Bacteria,
and Eukarya. Alkaliphilic behavior is also not limited to cells with a particular mode of life,so
that even the most extremely alkaline lakes appear to support complete cycling of carbon,
nitrogen and sulfur. Alkaliphiles keep the stressful extreme pH of their surrounding medium out
of their cells,and they maintain an intracellular pH close to neutrality. The alkaliphiles thus
maintain an inverted pH gradient. Membrane-linked bioenergetic processes are then based on
an exceptionally large membrane potential.

Hypersaline Environments and Halophiles

The seas that cover nearly 70% of the surface of planet Earth contain about 35 g l -1 dissolved
salt. Hypersaline environments are easily formed when seawater dries up in coastal lagoons
and salt marshes. Well-known examples are the Great Salt Lake, Utah – a lake in which the ionic
composition of the salts resembles that of seawater, and the Dead Sea, salt-adapted
microorganisms, obligate halophiles as well as halotolerant types, that can adjust to life over a
wide range of salt concentrations.

The pink to red-purple color that characterizes brines approaching NaCl saturation massive
numbers of pigmented halophilic microorganisms often found in such environments.
Halobacteriales is entirely composed of highly salt-requiring species,most of which are colored
red due to carotenoid pigments as well as by retinal pigments. Such organisms have adapted
their intracellular enzymatic machinery to function in high salt.Their proteins are functional at
high salt, and generally require salt for activity and stability. Others (Dunaliella and other
eukaryotes, most halophilic Bacteria, halophilic methanogenic Archaea) exclude salt from their
cytoplasm to a large extent, and instead accumulate organic osmotic solutes.

The Deep Sea and Barophiles/Piezophiles

The hydrostatic pressure in the sea increases by about 1 atmosphere (0.1 MPa) every 10
meters. The mean depth of the oceans is about 4 km,equivalent to a pressure of 400
atmospheres or 40 MPa, and the deepest parts of the oceans are more than 10 km deep.
Microorganisms living in such environments have to withstand pressures of over a thousand
atmospheres.

Some microbial isolates from the deep sea (obligate barophiles or piezophiles) cannot live at
normal atmospheric pressure, and these require a pressurized environment for growth. Most
barophilic of all isolates characterized to date: it does not grow at pressures lower than 50 MPa,
has its optimum at 70 MPa, and tolerates pressures of at least 100 MPa. Thermophilic
barophilic or barotolerant bacteria are associated with deep-sea hot vents. Thermococcus
barophilus, a hyperthermophile isolated from a Mid-Atlantic Ridge hydrothermal, barophilic
behavior of microorganisms lags behind our understanding of most other forms of stress to
which the different types of extremophiles are exposed.

Radiation-Resistant Microorganisms
Microorganisms found on terrestrial surfaces, air-borne microorganisms,and microbes living in
the upper layers of the sea and other aquatic environments are exposed to direct sunlight,
including a significant amount of potentially harmful ultraviolet radiation. Such organisms have
to protect themselves against radiation damage. Protection mechanisms include repair
mechanisms for damaged DNA, but also screening of the radiation by means of pigments,
preventing the harmful radiation from reaching the cell’s DNA and other radiation-sensitive
targets.
Microorganisms exposed to high levels of light are generally pigmented by carotenoids and
other pigments absorbing in the 400–500 nm wavelength range .UV-absorbing pigments are
also found. Among the cyanobacteria, we find species that accumulate the UV-absorbing
compound scytonemin within their extracellular sheath,effectively screening the radiation.
These prokaryotes are resistant to elevated doses of ionizing radiation is unclear, considering
that natural sources of radiation on Earth emit at very low levels. Studies on the desiccation
resistance of ionizing radiation resistant organisms suggest that the ability of microorganisms to
repair their DNA might be a response to DNA damage caused by prolonged desiccation rather
than ionizing radiation.

DNA repair systems, and use of the multiple chromosomes for homologous recombination.
Recently a special way of packaging of the DNA.

THE MECHANISMS OF EXTREMOPHILE BEHAVIOR

An in-depth discussion of the mechanisms that enable the different categories of extremophilic
microorganisms to survive and to grow in environments apparently hostile to life is outside the
scope of this book;extensive information about this topic can be found in monographs,Deep-
sea hydrothermal vents, which are characterized by temperatures up to 350 °C and pressures
up to at least 350 atm, represent one of the most extreme aquatic environments on Earth. The
discovery of life in these extreme settings continues to challenge our concept of the limiting
conditions for microbial growth. In the last century, the maximum reported upper temperature
limit for microbial growth had increased from 55 °C to 113 °C in the case of the
hyperthermophilic archaeon Pyrolobus fumarii. Recently, Strain 121, isolated from a
hydrothermal vent, was found to grow at temperatures as high as 121 °C.

Analysis of Lipids from Extremophilic Bacteria

Some extremophilic bacteria possess novel lipids that may reflect the environment that they
colonize. The extremely halophilic bacterium Salinibacter ruber possesses a novel sulfonolipid
that could indicate a role in the extremely saline environments that this organism inhabits.
However, other organisms of the phylum Bacterioidetes, particularly gliding bacteria of the
genera Cytophaga and Flexibacter slightly different sulfonolipids and it remains to be seen if
this unusual sulfonolipid is related or not to growth in extremely saline environments.

POLAR LIPIDS
The most common polar lipids of bacteria are phospholipids, glycolipids and
glycophospholipids, aminolipids and sulfur-containing lipids. The majority of the polar lipids of
bacteria have a glycerol backbone to which fatty acids are attached through ester linkages. Alkyl
glycerol ethers are also known among the bacteria, but are relatively rare or present in small
amounts. Some organisms such as Aquifex pyrophilus. Many other thermophilic and mesophilic
bacteria also generally possess small amounts of glycerol monoethers.