Extremophiles

An extremophile (from Latin extremus meaning “extreme” and Greek philia meaning “love” ).

Extremophiles are living organisms having the ability to survive or the ability to survive in extreme environments as a result of different physiological and molecular adaptations.

These organisms thrive in extreme niches, ice, and salt solutions, as well as acid and alkaline conditions.

Some might grow in toxic waste, organic solvents, heavy metals, or in several other habitats that are considered inhospitable for life.

Most extremophiles are prokaryotic organisms with few eukaryotes.

These extremophiles are defined by the environment in which they can live and thrive.

Applications of Extremophiles

Exremophilic enzymes have been modeled programs to study enzyme evolution, enzyme stability, activity, mechanism, protein structure, function, and biocatalyst under extreme conditions.

Enzymes from these organisms such as amylase, protease, cellulases, and lipases are used on an industrial scale.
Extroenzymes like Taq polymerase from Thermus aquaticus is an ideal for use in a polymerase chain reaction as it reduces the need for adding extra polymerase during the reaction.
Enzymes from extremophiles can also be used in bioremediation processes like toxifying wastewater and air and removing metallic waste from sewages and industries.

Types of Extremophiles

Extremophiles can be divided into two categories,

Extremophilic organisms that require one or more extreme conditions to survive.
Extremotolerant organisms can tolerate extreme conditions of one or more physical parameters even though they grow optimally at neutral conditions.
Extremophiles include members of all three domains of life. i.e. bacteria, archaea, and eukarya.

These are classified according to the conditions in which they grow –

Thermophiles – Organisms growing at high temperatures.

Hyperthermophiles – Organisms growing at very high temperatures.

Psychrophiles – Organisms that grow at low temperatures.

Acidophiles – Organisms thriving in habitats with an acidic PH.

Alkaliphiles – Organisms thriving in habitats with basic PH.

Halophiles – Organisms that grow well in an extreme environment with NaCl.

Radoduric – Organisms that grow well in the presence of high radiation.

Barophiles – Organisms that grow best under pressure.

Types	Environmental Sources	Limits
Thermophiles	Submarine hydrothermal vents	80°C to 115°C
Hyperthermophiles	Deep-sea	110 °C to 121 °C
Psychrophiles	Ice	-20 °C to -25 °C
Acidophiles	Volcanic springs, acid mine drainage	pH -0.06 to 1.0
Alkaliphiles	Soda lakes	pH > 11
Halophiles	NaCl	>5 M NaCl
Radoduric	Cosmic rays, X-rays, radioactive decay	1,500 to 6,000 Gy
Barophiles	Mariana Trench	1,100 bar

Psychrophile

Psychrophiles are nothing but cold-loving organisms.
It is an organism that adapts to low-temperature growth.

The maximum growth temperature should be above 15 ° C and the maximum growth temperature above 20 ° C and a minimum of 0 ° C.

Thermophile

extremophiles, thermophiles

Thermophiles (literally heat lovers) are organisms that grow above temperatures (25-40 ° C) that sustain most life forms.
In general, thermophiles show a maximum growth rate at temperatures above 45°C.
Thermophiles are a group of heat-loving microorganisms, usually above 45°C.

They are depleted of various ecological structures such as deep ocean hydrothermal vents, terrestrial hot springs and other extreme geological/geological sites including volcanic sites, decaying tectonically active defects as well as compost and organic deep organic landfills.
Morrison and Tanner (1922) provoked cultures of aerobic thermophilic bacteria from water samples from the Illinois State Water Survey.

Hyperthermophile

hyperthermophiles, extremophiles

Hyperthromophils are organisms that can withstand extremely high temperatures (above 80 ° C) and grow.
Hypothermophiles are a type of thermophiles that can withstand even higher temperatures than other thermophiles.

The maximum temperature of growth for hyperthermophiles is 80 ° C, but it can withstand temperatures above 100 ° C.
Hyperthermophilic isolated from hot springs in Yellowstone National Park were first reported in 1965 by Thomas de Brick. Since then, more than 70 species have been established.
Most are able to cope with other extreme conditions such as hyperthermophiles, high pH, and high pressure.
Most hyper thrombophilic organisms are found in hot springs and boiling steam vents where even moderate thermophiles cannot survive or thrive.

Hyperthermophilic are mostly related to the archaea group in which very few species are species of bacteria.
The cell membrane contains high amounts of saturated fatty acids to maintain its shape at high temperatures.
The most extreme hyperthermophiles reside on the heated walls of deep ocean hydrothermal vents, which require a temperature of at least 90 ° C to survive.

Some of the common examples of hyperthermophilic organisms are Thermoproteus uzoniensis, Staphylothermus Marinus, Pyrodictium abyssi, Pyrococcus furiosus, Hypothermus butylicus, Pryococcus woesei, Pyrodictium brockii, Pyrodictium occultum, etc.

Acidophile

extremophiles, acidophiles

Acidophilus is an organism that can survive and thrive in highly acidic conditions (usually at pH 2.0).
Acidophilic microorganisms thrive in very low pH natural and man-made environments such as acidic lakes, some hydrothermal systems, acid sulfate soils, sulfide regoliths, and ores as well as metal and coal mine-affected environments.
The high acidic atmosphere is formed by the id oxidation of metals and other sulfidic minerals formed by a series of acidophilic and acid-tolerant prokaryotic and eukaryotic life forms.

Heterotrophic, acidophilic bacteria, often living in close proximity to chemolithotrophic primary producers but also isolated from highly acidic environments.
The most widely studied acidophils are prokaryotes that oxidize reduced iron and sulfur.
They can produce oxidative dissolutions such as metal sulfide minerals such as pyrite (Phase 2), from which they rapidly acidify the environment (often with a pH less than 3) in which they thrive.

Natural acidic environments including volcanic areas, hydrothermal sources, deep ocean vents, metal mining areas, and animal stomachs.
Archea represents the largest acidophilic group of organisms. Physically, acidophils are very diverse: aerobic and flexible anaerobic, chemolithotrophic, and a variety of heterotrophic prokaryotes, phototrophic eukaryotes, predatory protozoa, and others.
Some examples of acidophilic organisms include – Lactobacillus, Thiobacillus, Sulfolobus, Bacillus acidocaldarius, Thermoplasma acidophilus, Picrophilus, Ferroplasma acidiphilum, Acidithiobacillus Leptospirillum, Acidobacterium spp., Sulfobacillus, etc.

Alkaliphile

alkaliphiles

Alkaliphiles are a group of extreme files that can live and thrive in environments with extremely high pH values (9-13), while the best pH is 10.

There are two types of alkalophilic organisms; Mandatory alkaloids grown only in pH environments above 9 and fatty alkaloids that can live in both neutral pH and alkaline conditions.
Mostly those eubacteria and some archaebacteria prokaryotes.
Alkalophiles are thought to be the oldest forms of life on Earth that originated billions of years ago in the alkaline hydrothermal vent systems of the ocean.

Alkalophiles thrive in many geographical locations on Earth, in natural and man-made alkaline environments such as alkaline soda lakes, soda deserts, and saline soda soils.
Other natural habitats in which alkalophilic thrive include alkaline serpentine ponds, marine bodies, and alkaline hydrothermal vents.
Some of the examples of alkaliphiles include – Bacillus alkaliphilus, Bacillus pasteurri, Bacillus halodurans, Halobacterium, Clostridium paradoxum, Halomonas pantelleriensis, Alkaliphilus hydrothermalis, etc.

Halophiles

extremophiles, halophiles

Halophiles are of two types; obligate halophiles that require a NaCl concentration of 3% or more and halotolerant that survive at both average salt concentrations and higher.

Halophiles are a group of extremophiles that require higher salt concentration in order to survive and grow.
The most common characteristics of halophilic microorganisms are the low nutritional requirements and resistance to high salt concentrations with the ability to balance the natural osmotic pressure.
The salt requirement in halophiles is classified into three groups; low (1-3%), moderate (3-15%), and extreme (15-30%). Inhabit different ecosystems characterized by a salinity higher than seawater that range from hypersaline soils, springs, salt lakes, sabkhas to marine sediments.

These organisms are found in all three domains of life, i.e., Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukaryota. Halophilic bacteria are more abundant in certain phylogenetic groups, most of which belong to the Halomonadaceae, family Proteobacteria.

Halophiles are of two types –

Obligate halophiles – that require NaCl concentration of 3% or more
Halotolerant – that survive at both average salt concentrations and higher.

Some common examples of halophilic organisms in terms of their salt requirement are,

Slightly halophilic – Erwinia, Bacillus hunanensis, Halomonas zhaodongensis, Alkalibacterium thalassium, etc.
Moderately halophilic – Spiribacter salinus, Halobacillus sediminis, Halobacillus saliçampi, Marinobacter piscensis, Idiomarina aquatica, etc.

Extreme halophilic – Halococcus salifodinae, Halobacterium salinarum, Limimonas halophilia, Lentibacillus kimchii, Sporohalobacter salinus, etc.

Metallotolearnt

metallotolerant

Metallotolerant microorganisms are microorganisms that are capable of tolerating and detoxifying high levels of dissolved heavy metals.
Many metallotolerant microorganisms tend to be acidophilic as the physiological functions of these tiny insects facilitate the tolerance of high iron concentrations.

Since most metals are highly soluble in acidic pH, acidophiles are usually found in high iron concentrations and can live up to 1000 times higher than neutrophilic bacteria.
Metallotolerant organisms belong to all bacterial groups studied, especially between aerobic and aerobic chemo-heterotrophic micro bacteria.
Contaminated soil and water contain industrial and urban waste that can be managed. Samples of natural environments with high metals are important areas for metallotolerant microorganisms.

Some of the common examples of metallotolerant species include – Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus megaterium, Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans, Acidithiobacillus caldus, Corynebacterium diptheriae, Acidiphilium rubrum, Acidiphilium multivorum, etc.

Radiophiles

Radiophiles are a group of extremophiles that are capable of surviving extreme forms of radiation like ionizing radiation (gamma rays) and UV radiation.

Studies on radiophiles are very limited as they have to be separated from the worst places like the outer space of other planets.

Extremophiles – What is an extremophiles | Biology Ideas