Metagenomics of extreme environments

Metagenomics of extreme environments.

Whether they are exposed to extremes of heat or cold, or buried deep beneath the Earth's surface, microorganisms have an uncanny ability to survive under these conditions. This ability to survive has fascinated scientists for nearly a century, but the recent development of metagenomics and 'omics' tools has allowed us to make huge leaps in understanding the remarkable complexity and versatility...

Metagenomics in Polluted Aquatic Environments

Extreme Environments and Extremophiles

Extremophiles and Extreme Environments

Over the last decades, the study of extremophiles has providing ground breaking discoveries that challenge the paradigms of modern biology and make us rethink intriguing questions such as "what is life?", "what are the limits of life?", and "what are the fundamental features of life?". These findings and possibilities have made the study of life in extreme environments one of the most exciting ...

Life in extreme environments

Extreme habitats lie outside the range of conditions in which most of organisms live. 'Extreme' includes physical extremes, e.g. temperature, radiation, pressure, and geochemical extreme, for example desiccation, salinity, pH, depletion of oxygen or extreme redox potential. Investigations of these environments are important for the study of evolution relationships, emergence of new species and ...