Extremophiles are microorganisms that are able to live in “extreme environments” such as high temperatures, pressures, and other extreme conditions. Through all these extreme environments they face, they show us the tenacity of life on Earth and reveal to us the range of conditions where life is possible to withstand. Extremozymes are unique enzymes used by these microorganisms that allow them to function in these horrid conditions. Two examples of extremophiles are endoliths and thermophiles, who like all extremophiles, have to withstand extreme conditions but yet still manage to harbour life.
Endoliths are extremophile organisms that live inside rocks, coral, animal shells and even the pores between mineral grains of rocks. There are many different types of endoliths that are found in Archaea, Bacteria and Fungi. They are typically found in a large range of environments, they are usually found on rocks, whether it be on the Earth’s surface or many miles below, as well as the Earth’s oceans and ocean floors. Endoliths can survive by feeding on traces of iron, potassium, or sulfur. Many endoliths are able to make their own organic compounds by using gas or dissolved nutrients from the water that flows through the cracked rocks. Other types of endoliths may include non-living compounds found in their rock layers.
There are three major environmental groups of endoliths: Cryptoendoliths, Subsurface Endoliths, and Deep-Biosphere Endoliths. Cryptoendoliths are the endoliths that live on rocks on the Earth's surface. The “Cryptoendolithic lichen” is the most common form of cryptoendoliths and these types of endoliths are known to be found in Antarctica’s dry valleys. Due to the fact that these cryptoendoliths endure such extreme con...
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...ct that all these organisms exist, it is dangerous for us to send spacecraft into space without some precautions. Humanity, particularly NASA and the Outer Space Treaty, have taken some precautions that we do not “infect” other planets with our microorganisms, especially our extremophiles that can possibly withstand these extreme conditions. Current space missions are constantly governed by the Outer Space Treaty and the COSPAR guidelines for planetary protection. The spacecrafts are sterilized before being sent off into space and this helps to prevent any contamination. However, if the aim of the mission is to return biological material to Earth, the sterilization of the samples would make them of much less effective. If anything is in fact brought back, they would require quarantine procedures for the materials and for anyone else who comes into contact with them.
Animal metabolism consists of the utilization of nutrients absorbed from the digestive tract and their catabolism as fuel for energy or their conversion into substances of the body. Metabolism is a continuous process because the molecules and even most cells of the body have brief lifetimes and are constantly replaced, while tissue as a whole maintains its characteristic structure. This constant rebuilding process without a net change in the amount of a cell constituent is known as dynamic equilibrium (Grolier1996). In the combustion of food, oxygen is used and carbon dioxide is given off. The rate of oxygen consumption indicates the energy expenditure of an organism, or its metabolic rate (Grolier1996).
The team of scientists consisted of a biogeologist, geochemist, and tectonic geologist with the common goal of understanding the coevolution of life and environ...
The earthworm is distinctive from saprozoic organisms. Earthworms are ancient creatures, which have survived on apex of the earth at least 700 million years ago (Cho et al., 1998). Earthworms are usually precise the same as a relatively well known group of soil invertebrate from both ecological and taxonomical perception. Earthworms are enforced to adopted and survive in this type of environments (Muhamad et al., 2006). The earthworm skin play a key role in the everyday survival of amphibians and
The bacteria that he discovered did not have a cell nucleus and its reproduction process was unknown. Though Karp’s work was destroyed in a lab explosion and no longer pursued, Stone and Leavitt were interested in how it could relate to the bacteria at Piedmont. Stone and Leavitt believed that bacteria could come from three sources: an organism from another planet or galaxy, bacteria that left Earth’s surface eons ago but remains in the upper atmosphere, and bacteria created by an Earth organism going to space and mutating into a different organism. The first source is improbable because though the bacteria could live in extreme conditions, it was not likely for bacteria to travel to another planet. Humans would have no immunity to bacteria in the second source and the bacteria would not be able to live with humans. The third source is the most probable because if bacteria did mutate in space, there is no way of knowing what it could do when it
...standing the nature of relationship between the residing microbes inside human cells and about their function is very important to put an end to this war and to live in peace with the natural organisms that are benefitting human body and their survival has become our primary importance.
From the top of the rock you can see gnamma pits. These are areas where the rock has weathered, leaving pits in the tock that soil builds into and plants hold it in
On every continent we find fossils of sea creatures in rock layers that today are high above sea level. For example, most of the rock layers in the walls of the Grand Canyon contain marine fossils. This includes the Kaibab Limestone at the top of the strata sequence and exposed at the rim of the canyon, which today is 7,000–8,000 feet above sea level.2 This limestone was therefore deposited beneath lime sediment-charged ocean waters, which swept over northern Arizona (and beyond). Other rock layers of the Grand Canyon also contain large numbers of marine fossils. The best example is the Redwall Limestone, which commonly contains fossil brachiopods (a type of clam), corals, bryozoans (lace corals), crinoids (sea-lilies), bivalves (other types
...nimals. Gregory Retallack, a paleontologist from the University of Oregon, suggests that these fossils were lichens.
Endothermy is defined as the process by which an organism maintains its body temperature through metabolic regulation. It’s sort of like an internal “heater” for these animals. It serves to keep their body temperature stable in most environmental conditions. However, in extreme temperatures, the endothermi...
All living things are made up of enzymes and proteins that break down when the organism is exposed to extreme life threatening conditions (visualinsight.net). Extremophiles are believed to have adapted to these extreme conditions because of “heat stress proteins.” Scientists have discovered special molecules, also known as “molecular chaperons,” that are produced when the organism is exposed to deadly conditions. These molecules are activated and will repair the proteins damaged by stressful encounters in the same way a human will develop a fever to fight off infection. The fever activates these “savior proteins” and healing
ECOSYSTEMS: Microbes obtain energy from their environment. Like humans, many microbes do this by eating plant and animal material. A typical microbe buffet consists of waste from humans and other animals, dead plants and animals, and food scraps. Bacteria, fungi and algae all take part in decomposing — or breaking down — this waste material. Without them, the world would quickly be overrun with discarded food scraps, raw sewage and dead organisms.
The protozoan commonly known as the “water bear” is an extremophile that has engaged many in the scientific community. The Tardigrade is an invertebrate that has eight legs and comes in many shapes and sizes. This group has many adaptations such as cryptobiosis that allows it to survive in extreme environments. The Tardigrade can be found from land, to water, to sulfur springs, and to over 25 species found in the frozen tundra of Antarctica (Miller et al, 2001). To understand these creatures this paper will summarize the taxonomy, reproduction, food, and protective genetics, of the Tardigrades. The first section to this paper will examine is how these creatures are divided taxonomically.
The rock pools studied should both contain organisms specially adapted to live in the intertidal environment of the rock pools. The organisms need to be adapted to the microenvironment of the rock pool, as conditions are considerably different to those of a ‘normal’ marine environment. The rock pools spend some of their time completely submerged by the sea and other times exposed to the air. When exposed the organisms of the rock pool are part of a much smaller body of water than normal. This smaller volume of exposed water is likely to be changed significantly, mostly as a result of heating by the sun (Brehaut, 1982).
The biosafety program ensures the competency of the laboratory staff in safely performing their job through training and documentation of technical expertise. The laboratory staff must manifest professional responsibility for management of research materials complying with appropriate materials management procedures. A hallmark of biosafety practices requires laboratory access to be limited to essential personnel only when work with biological agents is in progress. Biosecurity practices on the other hand ensure that access to the laboratory facility and biological materials are limited and controlled. An inventory system must also be in place so as to control and track biological stocks or other potentially hazardous biological agents in both biosafety and biosecurity programs. For biosafety, the transfer and shipping of infectious biological materials must comply with safe packaging, containment and appropriate transport procedures, while biosecurity ensures that transfers are controlled, tracked and documented relative to the potential risks of the materials being transferred. Both programs must involve the laboratory staff in the development of practices and procedures that fulfills the requirements of biosafety and biosecurity initiatives without hindering research or clinical/diagnostic activities. The success of both of these programs is anchored on a laboratory culture
Mermel, L. A. (2013). Infection Prevention and Control During Prolonged Human Space Travel. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 123-130.