Polyextremophiles: Life Under Multiple Forms of Stress

641 Pages·2013·11.57 MB·English

by  Mark C. Capece

Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology 27
Joseph Seckbach
Aharon Oren
Helga Stan-Lotter Editors
Polyextremophiles
Life Under Multiple Forms of Stress
POLYEXTREMOPHILES
Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology
Volume 27
Series Editor:
Joseph Seckbach
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
For further volumes:
http://www.springer.com/series/5775
Polyextremophiles
Life Under Multiple Forms of Stress
Edited by
Joseph Seckbach
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
Aharon Oren
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
and
Helga Stan-Lotter
University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria
Editors
Joseph Seckbach Aharon Oren
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Department of Plant and Environmental
Jerusalem, Israel Sciences
The Institute of Life Sciences
Helga Stan-Lotter The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Division of Molecular Biology Jerusalem, Israel
University of Salzburg
Salzburg, Austria
ISSN 1566-0400
ISBN 978-94-007-6487-3 ISBN 978-94-007-6488-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-6488-0
Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg New York London
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013936797
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction / Joseph Seckbach , Aharon Oren ,
and Helga Stan-Lotter ............................................................... ix
Foreword / Richard W. Castenholz ..................................................... xi
Preface /K oki Horikoshi .................................................................... xvii
Editors’ Biographies ........................................................................ xxiii
List of Authors and Their Addresses ............................................... xxv
PART I:
GENERAL ASPECTS
Polyextremophiles and the Constraints for Terrestrial Habitability
[Capece, M.C. et al.] .................................................................. 3
Life on the Edge and Astrobiology: Who Is Who
in the Polyextremophiles World? [ Seckbach, J.] ......................... 61
The Dynamic Genomes of Acidophiles
[ López De Saro, F.J. et al.] ......................................................... 81
PART II:
HALOPHILES
Two Centuries of Microbiological Research in the Wadi Natrun, Egypt:
A Model System for the Study of the Ecology, Physiology,
and Taxonomy of Haloalkaliphilic Microorganisms
[ Oren, A.] .................................................................................. 101
Adaptation in Haloalkaliphiles and Natronophilic
Bacteria [ Banciu, H.L. and Sorokin, D.Y.] .................................. 121
A Random Biogeochemical Walk into Three Soda Lakes
of the Western USA: With an Introduction
to a Few of Their Microbial Denizens [ Oremland, R.S.] ............ 179
Halophilic, Acidophilic, and Haloacidophilic
Prokaryotes [ Minegishi, H.] ....................................................... 201
v
vvii TABLE OF CONTENTS
Life in Magnesium- and Calcium-Rich Hypersaline Environments:
Salt Stress by Chaotropic Ions [ Oren, A.] .................................. 215
Survival Strategies of Halophilic Oligotrophic and Desiccation
Resistant Prokaryotes [Stan-Lotter, H. and Fendrihan, S.] ......... 233
Radiation Resistance in Extremophiles: Fending Off Multiple
Attacks [ Webb, K.M. and DiRuggiero, J.] .................................. 249
PART III:
THERMOPHILES
Thermoalkaliphilic Microbes [ Kumar, V. and Satyanarayana, T.] ..... 271
Acido- and Thermophilic Microorganisms: Their Features,
and the Identi fi cation of Novel Enzymes or Pathways
[ Kawarabayasi, Y.] ..................................................................... 297
Microbial Diversity in Acidic High-Temperature Steam Vents
[ Weiss Bizzoco, R.L. and Kelley, S.T.] ........................................ 315
PART IV:
PSYCHROPHILES
Left Out in the Cold: Life in Cryoenvironments
[ Goordial, J. et al.] ...................................................................... 335
Microbial Diversity and Enzymes in Ikaite Columns:
A Cold and Alkaline Environment in Greenland
[ Vester, J.K. et al.] ...................................................................... 365
Microbial Communities Thriving in Various Ice Ecosystems
[ Sattler, B. et al.] ........................................................................ 381
Snow Algae: Adaptation Strategies to Survive on Snow and Ice
[ Leya, T.] ................................................................................... 401
Adaptation of Antarctic Freshwater Green Algae
to Extreme Environments [ Hu, H.] ............................................ 425
PART V:
PRESSURE
Deep Subsurface Oil Reservoirs as Poly-extreme Habitats
for Microbial Life. A Current Review
[ Wentzel, A. et al.] ..................................................................... 439
Expanding Limits for Life to a New Dimension: Microbial Growth
at Hypergravity
[ Deguchi, S. and Horikoshi, K.] .................................................. 467
TABLE OF CONTENTS vii
PART VI:
OXYGEN RELATIONSHIPS
Microbial Eukaryotes in Marine Oxygen Minimum Zones
[Orsi, W.D. and Edgcomb, V.P.] .................................................. 485
Deep Hypersaline Anoxic Basins as Model Systems for Environmental
Selection of Microbial Plankton [ Stock, A. et al.] ..................... 499
Microbial Eukaryotes in Hypersaline Anoxic Deep-Sea Basins
[ Edgcomb, V.P. and Orsi, W.D.] .................................................. 517
Life at High Salt and Low Oxygen: How Do the H alobacteriaceae
Cope with Low Oxygen Concentrations in Their Environment?
[Oren, A.] .................................................................................. 531
PART VII:
SELECTED ORGANISMS
Niches and Adaptations of Polyextremotolerant Black Fungi
[Grube, M. et al.] ....................................................................... 551
Polyextremophilic Photoautotrophic Eukaryotic Algae
[Reisser, W.] ............................................................................... 567
Extremophilic Magnetotactic Bacteria
[Lefèvre C.T. and Bazylinski, D.A.] ............................................ 581
Tardigrades : An Example of Multicellular Extremophiles
[Schulze-Makuch, D. and Seckbach, J.] ...................................... 597
PART VIII:
FINAL COMMENTS
Polyextremophiles: Summary and Conclusions [Chela-Flores, J.] .... 611
Subject Index ................................................................................... 617
Organism Index ............................................................................... 623
Author Index ................................................................................... 633

INTRODUCTION
The current volume presents a collection of essays, review papers, and results of
original research dealing with different aspects of life at more than one environ-
mental extreme. We know many types of “extremophilic” microorganisms (and
some macroorganisms as well) that are adapted to life at high or low temperature,
high or low pH, high salt concentrations, high pressure, extreme levels of radiation,
etc. Each of these modes of life requires special mechanisms that enable the orga-
nisms to withstand the environmental conditions that are too harsh for most other
organisms. The existence of “polyextremophilic” organisms is even more intriguing,
as here the organisms must be able to tolerate a combination of stressful factors.
The microorganisms that lived on early Earth were most probably polyextremophiles,
and their offspring are still found in specialized niches. These polyextremophiles
may serve as analogues or models for extraterrestrial life-forms that may exist or
may have existed on Mars, Europa, and other celestial bodies.
This book contains 32 chapters , contributed by 61 authors from 17 countries.
The present volume complements the other volumes in the COLE series
( w ww.springer.com/series/5775 ) that deal with selected aspects of extremophiles,
notably volumes 5, 9, 11, 17, and 21. We hope that this volume will prove valuable
as an up-to-date overview of the current state of the research on extremophiles in
general and polyextremophiles in particular.
Joseph Seckbach
Aharon Oren
and
Helga Stan-Lotter
November 2012
ix