Extremophile

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Extremophile

An extremophile (from Latin extremus meaning "extreme" and Greek philia (f???a) meaning "love") is an organism

Organism

In biology, an organism is any life thing . In at least some form, all organisms are capable of response to stimulus , reproduction, growth and developmental biology, and maintenance of homeostasis as a stable whole....
that thrives in and may even require physically or geochemically extreme conditions

Extreme environment

An extreme environment exhibits harsh and challenging environment conditions of climate and landscape such as extremes of temperature, far outside the boundaries of what a human can comfortably tolerate....
that are detrimental to the majority of life on Earth

Life on Earth

Life on Earth: A Natural History by David Attenborough is a groundbreaking television natural history series made by the BBC in association with Warner Bros....
.

Most known extremophiles are microbes.

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Extremophile'

Start a new discussion about 'Extremophile'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

An extremophile (from Latin extremus meaning "extreme" and Greek philia (f???a) meaning "love") is an organism

Organism

Extreme environment

Life on Earth

Archaea

The Archaea are a group of single-celled microorganisms. A single individual or species from this domain is called an archaeon . Archaea, like bacteria, are prokaryotic....
contains renowned examples, but extremophiles are present in numerous and diverse gene

Gene

A gene is the basic unit of heredity in a living organism. All living things depend on genes. Genes hold the information to build and maintain their cell and pass genetic trait to offspring....
tic lineages of both bacteria

Bacteria

The Bacteria are a large group of unicellular microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals....
and archaeans. Furthermore, it is erroneous to use the term extremophile to encompass all archaeans, as some are mesophilic

Mesophile

A mesophile is an organism that grows best in moderate temperature, neither too hot nor too cold, typically between 15 and 40 celsius . The term is mainly applied to microorganisms....
. Neither are all extremophiles unicellular; protostome

Protostome

Protostomia are a clade of animals. Together with the deuterostomes and a few smaller phylum, they make up the Bilateria, mostly comprising animals with symmetry #Bilateral symmetry and triploblastic germ layers....
animals found in similar environments include the Pompeii worm

Pompeii worm

The Pompeii worm is a deep-sea polychaete worm extremophile found only at hydrothermal vents in the Pacific Ocean, discovered in the early 1980s off the Gal?pagos Islands by France researchers....
, the psychrophilic

Psychrophile

Insect

Insects are the biggest class of arthropods and the only ones with wings. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet. They are most diverse at the equator and their diversity declines toward the poles....
s), Antarctic krill

Antarctic krill

Antarctic krill is a species of krill found in the Antarctica waters of the Southern Ocean. Antarctic krill are shrimp-like invertebrates or crustaceans that live in large schools, called swarms, sometimes reaching densities of 10,000?30,000 individual animals per cubic meter....
(a crustacean

Crustacean

Crustaceans are a large group of arthropods, comprising almost 52,000 described species , and are usually treated as a subphylum . They include various familiar animals, such as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles....
) and the "water bear

Tardigrade

Tardigrades form the phylum Tardigrada, part of the superphylum Ecdysozoa. They are microscopic, water-dwelling, segmented animals with eight legs....
".

Types of extremophiles

There are many different classes of extremophiles, each corresponding to the way its environmental niche differs from mesophilic conditions. These classifications are not exclusive. Many extremophiles fall under multiple categories. For example, organisms living inside hot rocks deep under Earth's surface are both thermophilic and barophilic.

Acidophile

Acidophile (organisms)

Acidophilic organisms are those that thrive under highly acidic conditions . These organisms can be found in different branches of the tree of life, including Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukaryotes....
: An organism with an optimum pH

pH is a measure of the Acid or Base of a solution. It is defined as the cologarithm of the Activity of dissolved hydrogen ions . Hydrogen ion activity coefficients cannot be measured experimentally, so they are based on theoretical calculations....
level at or below pH 3. Alkaliphile

Alkaliphile

Alkaliphiles are microbes classified as extremophiles that thrive in alkaline environments with a pH of 9 to 11 such as playa lakes and carbonate-rich soils....
: An organism with optimal growth at pH

Endolith

An endolith is an organism that lives inside Rock , coral, animal shells, or in the Porositys between mineral grains of a rock. Many are extremophiles; living in places previously thought inhospitable to life....
: An organism that lives in microscopic spaces within rocks, such as pores between aggregate grains. These may also be called cryptoendoliths. This term also includes organisms populating fissures, aquifers, and faults filled with groundwater in the deep subsurface. Halophile

Halophile

Halophiles are extremophile organisms that thrive in environment s with very high concentrations of salt. The name comes from Greek language for "salt-loving"....
: An organism requiring at least 2M of salt, NaCl

Sodium chloride

Sodium chloride, also known as common salt, table salt, or halite, is a chemical compound with the chemical formula SodiumChlorine....
, for growth. Hyperthermophile

Hyperthermophile

A hyperthermophile is an organism that thrives in extremely hot environments? from 60 degrees C upwards. An optimal temperature for the existence of Hyperthermophiles are above 80?C ....
: An organism that can thrive at temperatures between 80-122 °C, such as those found in hydrothermal systems. Hypolith

Hypolith

In Arctic and Antarctic ecology, a hypolith is a photosynthetic organism that livesunderneath rock in climate extreme deserts such as Cornwallis Island and Devon Island in the Canadian high Arctic....
: An organism that lives inside rocks in cold deserts. Lithoautotroph

Lithoautotroph

A lithoautotroph is a microbe which derives energy from redox compounds of mineral origin. They may also be referred to as chemolithoautotrophs, a type of Lithotroph, reflecting their autotrophic metabolic pathways....
: An organism (usually bacteria) whose sole source of carbon

Carbon

Carbon is a chemical element with chemical symbol C and atomic number 6. As a member of group 14 on the periodic table, it is nonmetallic and tetravalence?making four electrons available to form covalent bond chemical bonds....
is carbon dioxide

Carbon dioxide

Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalent bond to a single carbon atom. It is a gas at standard temperature and pressure and exists in Earth's atmosphere in this state....
and exergonic inorganic oxidation (chemolithotrophs) such as Nitrosomonas europaea. These organisms are capable of deriving energy from reduced mineral compounds like pyrites, and are active in geochemical cycling and the weathering of parent bedrock to form soil. Metalotolerant: capable of tolerating high levels of dissolved heavy metals in solution, such as copper

Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity....
, cadmium

Cadmium

Cadmium is a chemical element with the symbol Cd and atomic number 48. A relatively abundant , soft, bluish-white, transition metal, cadmium is known to cause cancer and occurs with zinc ores....
, arsenic

Arsenic

Arsenic is a well-known chemical element that has the symbol As and atomic number 33. Arsenic was first documented by Albertus Magnus in 1250....
, and zinc

Zinc

Zinc is a metallic chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a first-row transition metal of the group 12 element of the periodic table....
. Examples include Ferroplasma
Ferroplasma

In alpha taxonomy, Ferroplasma is a genus of the Ferroplasmaceae.The genus Ferroplasma consists solely of F. acidophilum, an acidophile iron-oxidizing member of the Euryarchaeota....
sp. and Ralstonia metallidurans
Ralstonia metallidurans

Ralstonia metallidurans strain CH34, [previously Alcaligenes eutrophus, ] non-spore forming bacillus is adapted to survive several forms of heavy metal stress ....
. Oligotroph

Oligotroph

An oligotroph is an organism that can live in a very low carbon concentration, less than one part per million. They may be contrasted with copiotrophs, which prefer environments rich in carbon....
: An organism capable of growth in nutritionally limited environments. Osmophile

Osmophile

Osmophillic organisms are extremophiles that are able to grow in environments with a high sugar concentration. Osmophiles are similar to Halophile organisms because a critical aspect of both types of environment is their low water activity, aW....
: An organism capable of growth in environments with a high sugar concentration. Piezophile

Piezophile

A piezophile is an organism which thrives at high pressures, such as deep sea bacteria or archaea. They are generally found on Seabeds, where pressure often exceeds 380 Atmosphere ....
: An organism that lives optimally at high hydrostatic pressure

Pressure

Pressure is the force per unit area applied to an object in a direction surface normal to the surface. Gauge pressure is the pressure relative to the local atmospheric or ambient pressure....
. Common in the deep terrestrial subsurface, as well as in oceanic trench

Oceanic trench

The oceanic trenches are hemispheric-scale long but narrow topographic depressions of the sea floor. They are also the deepest parts of the ocean floor....
es. Polyextremophile

Polyextremophile

A polyextremophile is an organism which combines several extremophilic features. For example, a polyextremophile living at the summit of a mountain in the Atacama Desert might be a radioresistant xerophile, a psychrophile, and an oligotroph....
: An organism that qualifies as an extremophile under more than one category. Psychrophile

Psychrophile

Psychrophiles or Cryophiles are extremophile organisms that are capable of cell growth and biological reproduction in cold temperatures. They can be contrasted with thermophiles, which thrive at unusually hot temperatures....
/Cryophile: An organism that grows better at temperatures of 15 °C or lower. Common in cold soils, permafrost, polar ice, cold ocean water, and in/under alpine snowpack. Radioresistant: resistant to high levels of ionizing radiation

Ionizing radiation

Ionizing radiation consists of subatomic particle radiation or electromagnetic radiation that are energetic enough to detach electrons from atoms or molecules, ionize them....
, most commonly ultraviolet radiation but also includes organisms capable of resisting nuclear radiation. Thermophile

Thermophile

A thermophile is an organism ? a type of extremophile ? that wikt:thrives at relatively high temperatures, between 45 and 80 ?C . Many thermophiles are archaea....
: An organism that can thrive at temperatures between 60-80 °C. Thermoacidophile

Thermoacidophile

A thermoacidophile is an extremophile archaea which thrives in acidous, sulfur rich, high temperature environments.Thermoacidophiles prefer temperatures of 70 - 80 ?C and pH between 2 and 3....
: Combination of thermophile

Thermophile

A thermophile is an organism ? a type of extremophile ? that wikt:thrives at relatively high temperatures, between 45 and 80 ?C . Many thermophiles are archaea....
and acidophile

Acidophile

An acidophile is an inorganic particle or living organism that tends toward acidic conditions or acids. Cf. "Acidophobe". Specifically, it can refer to the following:...
. Prefer temperatures of 70 - 80 °C and pH between 2 and 3. Xerophile

Xerophile

Xerophiles are extremophile organisms that can cell growth and biological reproduction in conditions with a low availability of water, also known as water activity....
: An organism that can grow in extremely dry, desiccating conditions. This type is exemplified by the soil microbes of the Atacama Desert

Atacama Desert

The Atacama Desert is a virtually rainless plateau in South America, covering a 966 km strip of land on the Pacific Ocean coast of South America, west of the Andes mountains....
.

Extremophiles and astrobiology

Astrobiology

Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe. This interdisciplinary field encompasses the search for habitable environments in our Solar System and Planetary habitability outside our Solar System, the search for evidence of Abiogenesis, life on Mars and other bodies in our Solar Syst...
is the field concerned with forming theories, such as panspermia

Panspermia

Panspermia is the hypothesis that "seeds" of life exist already all over the Universe, that life on Earth may have originated through these "seeds", and that they may deliver or have delivered life to other habitable bodies....
, about the distribution, nature, and future of life in the universe. In it, microbial ecologists, astronomers, planetary scientists, geochemists, philosophers, and explorers cooperate to constructively guide the search for life on other planets. Astrobiologists are particularly interested in studying extremophiles, as many organisms of this type are capable of surviving in environments similar to those known to exist on other planets. For example, Mars may have regions in its deep subsurface permafrost that could harbor endolith

Endolith

Jupiter

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the Solar system by size planet within the Solar System. It is two and a half times as massive as all of the other planets in our Solar System combined....
's moon Europa

Europa (moon)

'Europa' is the Moons_of_Jupiter#Table Natural satellite of the planet Jupiter. Europa was discovered in 1610 by Galileo Galilei , and named after a mythical Phoenician noblewoman, Europa , who was courted by Zeus and became the queen of Crete....
may harbor life, especially at hypothesized hydrothermal vents at the ocean floor.

External links

[https://inlportal.inl.gov/portal/server.pt?open=514&objID=2660&parentname=CommunityPage&parentid=0&mode=2&in_hi_userid=200&cached=true Extremophile Research]