Related Research Articles
The halophiles, named after the Greek word for "salt-loving", are extremophiles that thrive in high salt concentrations. While most halophiles are classified into the domain Archaea, there are also bacterial halophiles and some eukaryotic species, such as the alga Dunaliella salina and fungus Wallemia ichthyophaga. Some well-known species give off a red color from carotenoid compounds, notably bacteriorhodopsin. Halophiles can be found in water bodies with salt concentration more than five times greater than that of the ocean, such as the Great Salt Lake in Utah, Owens Lake in California, the Dead Sea, and in evaporation ponds. They are theorized to be a possible candidate for extremophiles living in the salty subsurface water ocean of Jupiter's Europa and other similar moons.
Halotolerance is the adaptation of living organisms to conditions of high salinity. Halotolerant species tend to live in areas such as hypersaline lakes, coastal dunes, saline deserts, salt marshes, and inland salt seas and springs. Halophiles are organisms that live in highly saline environments, and require the salinity to survive, while halotolerant organisms can grow under saline conditions, but do not require elevated concentrations of salt for growth. Halophytes are salt-tolerant higher plants. Halotolerant microorganisms are of considerable biotechnological interest.
Psychrophiles or cryophiles are extremophilic organisms that are capable of growth and reproduction in low temperatures, ranging from −20 °C to +10 °C. They are found in places that are permanently cold, such as the polar regions and the deep sea. They can be contrasted with thermophiles, which are organisms that thrive at unusually high temperatures. Psychrophile is Greek for 'cold-loving'.
The Oceanospirillales are an order of Proteobacteria with ten families.
Halobacterium is a genus in the family Halobacteriaceae.
Ectoine is a natural compound found in several species of bacteria. It is a compatible solute which serves as a protective substance by acting as an osmolyte and thus helps organisms survive extreme osmotic stress. Ectoine is found in high concentrations in halophilic microorganisms and confers resistance towards salt and temperature stress. Ectoine was first identified in the microorganism Ectothiorhodospira halochloris, but has since been found in a wide range of Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. Other species of bacteria in which ectoine was found include:
Haloarchaea are a class of the Euryarchaeota, found in water saturated or nearly saturated with salt. Halobacteria are now recognized as archaea, rather than bacteria and are one of the largest groups. The name 'halobacteria' was assigned to this group of organisms before the existence of the domain Archaea was realized, and while valid according to taxonomic rules, should be updated. Halophilic archaea are generally referred to as haloarchaea to distinguish them from halophilic bacteria.
Microbiota are "ecological communities of commensal, symbiotic and pathogenic microorganisms" found in and on all multicellular organisms studied to date from plants to animals. Microbiota include bacteria, archaea, protists, fungi and viruses. Microbiota have been found to be crucial for immunologic, hormonal and metabolic homeostasis of their host. The term microbiome describes either the collective genomes of the microorganisms that reside in an environmental niche or the microorganisms themselves.
Blood Falls is an outflow of an iron oxide-tainted plume of saltwater, flowing from the tongue of Taylor Glacier onto the ice-covered surface of West Lake Bonney in the Taylor Valley of the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Victoria Land, East Antarctica.
Marine microorganisms are defined by their habitat as the microorganisms living in a marine environment, that is, in the saltwater of a sea or ocean or the brackish water of a coastal estuary. A microorganism is any microscopic living organism, that is, any life form too small for the naked human eye to really see, needing a microscope. Microorganisms are very diverse. They can be single-celled or multicellular and include all bacteria and archaea and most protozoa, as well as some species of fungi, algae, and certain microscopic animals, such as rotifers and copepods. Many macroscopic animals and plants have microscopic juvenile stages. Some microbiologists also classify biologically active entities such as viruses and viroids as microorganisms, but others consider these as non-living.
Soil microbiology is the study of microorganisms in soil, their functions, and how they affect soil properties. It is believed that between two and four billion years ago, the first ancient bacteria and microorganisms came about on Earth's oceans. These bacteria could fix nitrogen, in time multiplied, and as a result released oxygen into the atmosphere. This led to more advanced microorganisms, which are important because they affect soil structure and fertility. Soil microorganisms can be classified as bacteria, actinomycetes, fungi, algae and protozoa. Each of these groups has characteristics that define them and their functions in soil.
The hologenome theory of evolution recasts the individual animal or plant as a community or a "holobiont" – the host plus all of its symbiotic microbes. Consequently, the collective genomes of the holobiont form a "hologenome". Holobionts and hologenomes are structural entities that replace misnomers in the context of host-microbiota symbioses such as superorganism, organ, and metagenome. Variation in the hologenome may encode phenotypic plasticity of the holobiont and can be subject to evolutionary changes caused by selection and drift, if portions of the hologenome are transmitted between generations with reasonable fidelity. One of the important outcomes of recasting the individual as a holobiont subject to evolutionary forces is that genetic variation in the hologenome can be brought about by changes in the host genome and also by changes in the microbiome, including new acquisitions of microbes, horizontal gene transfers, and changes in microbial abundance within hosts. Although there is a rich literature on binary host–microbe symbioses, the hologenome concept distinguishes itself by including the vast symbiotic complexity inherent in many multicellular hosts. For recent literature on holobionts and hologenomes published in an open access platform, see the following reference.
Halomonas subglaciescola is a Gram-negative halophilic Proteobacteria. It was first isolated from an Antarctic, hypersaline, meromictic lake, but has since been found in other environments, such as fermenting seafood. It has a largely oxidative mode of metabolism and it is motile through peritrichous flagellation. This species doesn't utilise glucose, and its type strain is ACAM 12.
Halobacterium noricense is a halophilic, rod-shaped microorganism that thrives in environments with salt levels near saturation. Despite the implication of the name, Halobacterium is actually a genus of archaea, not bacteria. H. noricense can be isolated from environments with high salinity such as the Dead Sea and the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Members of the Halobacterium genus are excellent model organisms for DNA replication and transcription due to the stability of their proteins and polymerases when exposed to high temperatures. To be classified in the genus Halobacterium, a microorganism must exhibit a membrane composition consisting of ether-linked phosphoglycerides and glycolipids.
Halomonas desiderata is an alkaliphilic, halotolerant and denitrifying bacterium first isolated from a municipal sewage works.
The word microbiome was first used by J.L. Mohr in 1952 in The Scientific Monthly to mean the microorganisms found in a specific environment. It was defined in 1988 by Whipps et al. as "a characteristic microbial community occupying a reasonably well-defined habitat which has distinct physio-chemical properties. The term thus not only refers to the microorganisms involved but also encompasses their theatre of activity".
Microbial symbiosis in marine animals was not discovered until 1981. In the time following, symbiotic relationships between marine invertebrates and chemoautotrophic bacteria have been found in a variety of ecosystems, ranging from shallow coastal waters to deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Symbiosis is a way for marine organisms to find creative ways to survive in a very dynamic environment. They are different in relation to how dependent the organisms are on each other or how they are associated. It is also considered a selective force behind evolution in some scientific aspects. The symbiotic relationships of organisms has the ability to change behavior, morphology and metabolic pathways. With increased recognition and research, new terminology also arises, such as holobiont, which the relationship between a host and its symbionts as one grouping. Many scientists will look at the hologenome, which is the combined genetic information of the host and its symbionts. These terms are more commonly used to describe microbial symbionts.
A holobiont is an assemblage of a host and the many other species living in or around it, which together form a discrete ecological unit. The components of a holobiont are individual species or bionts, while the combined genome of all bionts is the hologenome. The concept of the holobiont was initially defined by Dr. Lynn Margulis in her 1991 book Symbiosis as a Source of Evolutionary Innovation, though the concept has subsequently evolved since the original definition. Holobionts include the host, virome, microbiome, and other members, all of which contribute in some way to the function of the whole. Well-studied holobionts include reef-building corals and humans.
Endozoicomonas gorgoniicola is a Gram-negative and facultative anaerobic bacterium from the genus of Endozoicomonas. Individual cells are motile and rod-shaped. Bacteria in this genus are symbionts of coral. E. gorgoniicola live specifically with soft coral and were originally isolated from a species of Plexaura, an octocoral, off the coast of Bimini in the Bahamas. The presence of this bacterium in a coral microbiome is associated with coral health.
Kimberly B. Ritchie is an American marine biologist. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Natural Sciences at the University of South Carolina Beaufort. Her research is focused on marine microbiology and how microbes affect animal health in hosts such as corals and sharks.
References
- ↑ Parte, A.C. "Halomonas". LPSN .
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 James, S.R. (1990). "Halomonas meridiana, a New Species of Extremely Halotolerant Bacteria Isolated from Antarctic Saline Lakes". Systematic and Applied Microbiology. 13 (3): 270–278. doi:10.1016/S0723-2020(11)80198-0.
- 1 2 Meyer, Julie L (2015). "Draft Genome Sequence of Halomonas Meridiana R1t3 Isolated from the Surface Microbiota of the Caribbean Elkhorn Coral Acropora Palmata". Standards in Genomic Sciences. 10: 75. doi:10.1186/s40793-015-0069-y. PMC 4597393 . PMID 26451236.
- 1 2 Ventosa, A.; Nieto, J. J.; Oren, A. (1998-06-01). "Biology of moderately halophilic aerobic bacteria". Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews. 62 (2): 504–544. doi:10.1128/MMBR.62.2.504-544.1998. ISSN 1092-2172. PMC 98923 . PMID 9618450.
- ↑ Sánchez-Román, Mónica; Vasconcelos, Crisógono; Schmid, Thomas; Dittrich, Maria; McKenzie, Judith A.; Zenobi, Renato; Rivadeneyra, Maria A. (2008). "Aerobic microbial dolomite at the nanometer scale: Implications for the geologic record". Geology. 36 (11): 879. Bibcode:2008Geo....36..879S. doi:10.1130/g25013a.1.
- ↑ "IMG/M: Integrated Microbial Genomes & Microbiomes". JGI IMG Integrated Microbial Genomes & Microbiomes. 2017. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Anithajothi, R. (2014). "Screening, Isolation and Characterization of Protease Producing Moderately Halophilic MicroorganismHalomonas Meridianaassociated with Coral Mucus". Toxicological & Environmental Chemistry. 92 (2): 296–306. doi:10.1080/02772248.2014.925182. S2CID 85076785.