Here\u2019s what you\u2019ll learn when you read this story:<\/p>\n
Discovered just over 60 years ago, extremophiles are bacteria, archaea, and eukarya that can survive in extremely salty, hot, cold, acidic, or radioactive environments.<\/p>\n
A new review study explains that extremophiles have revolutionized medicine, and are invaluable allies in the fight against climate change.<\/p>\n
Extremophiles are difficult to cultivate in the lab, but synthetic biology is making it possible to create organisms with extremophile-like attributes.<\/p>\n
While visiting the famous hot springs at Yellowstone National Park in 1964, ecologist Tom Brock stumbled upon something very small<\/a> that would overturn a major paradigm\u2014a microorganism capable of surviving at temperatures much higher than scientists previously thought possible. That organism, subsequently named Thermus aquaticus by Brock and his research team, is widely regarded as one of the first extremophiles (organisms that thrive in hostile environments) ever discovered. T. aquaticus eventually went on to make a significant contribution to science by providing the crucial enzyme needed for the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) technique that\u2019s central to vaccine development. Now, a new review study published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology<\/a> showcases how Brock\u2019s discovery was only the preamble to the amazing scientific findings these tiny microbes have made possible.<\/p>\n The bacterium discovered in Yellowstone is what\u2019s known as a thermophile, meaning that it can withstand immensely hot temperatures. But other types of bacteria, archaea, and even a few eukarya, can also be adapted to extreme cold (psychrophiles), thrive in ultra-salty water (halophiles), withstand the punishing qualities of acid (acidophiles), or simply carry on living amid normally-life-threatening levels of radiation (radiophiles<\/a>). Extremophiles exhibit super-robustness in the face of overwhelmingly inhospitable conditions, and scientists have discovered ways to leverage these abilities\u2014as in the case of T. aquaticus\u2014for immensely important purposes.<\/p>\n \u201cExtremophiles exhibit remarkable adaptability in environments once considered uninhabitable,\u201d the research team, made up of scientists from United Arab Emirates University, wrote. \u201cThey possess unique physiological and biochemical adaptations that enable them to survive and even thrive under such hostile conditions<\/a>. These adaptations include robust DNA repair systems that counteract radiation damage, stress-resistant membrane structures and lipid compositions, accumulation of organic osmolytes, production of specialized enzymes, and protein-level modifications that maintain intracellular homeostasis.\u201d<\/p>\n In the decades since their discovery, the science of extremophile biology has proven to be a goldmine of advances in practical applications for agriculture, textiles, biofuels, material science, and cosmetology, just to name a few. But the utility of these extreme organisms goes beyond mere practicality\u2014they\u2019ve also made heroic contributions to the realm of pure science. Extremophiles serve as a kind of living analog to LUCA<\/a>, or Earth\u2019s last universal common ancestor, which is the elusive organism from which all life on our planet descended.<\/p>\n Although we don\u2019t know every detail about LUCA, scientists surmise that it was most likely an anaerobic prokaryotic extremophile living near a hydrothermal vent in the deep ocean<\/a>. The reason is simple: If you were an oxygen-breathing mesophile (an organism that grows in moderate temperatures), Earth during the Hadean Eon wasn\u2019t the place for you. But for extremophiles, it was just right.<\/p>\n \u201cExtremophiles are found across all three domains of life including bacteria, archaea, and eukarya, sharing similar mechanisms that enable survival in extreme environments,\u201d the authors wrote. \u201cThese shared traits likely arose through convergent evolution and\/or the horizontal acquisition of stress-resistance genes from a common environmental gene pool.\u201d<\/p>\n