Thermophilic bacteria are one of the most attractive forms of life, and their adaptation mechanisms to elevated temperatures have been extensively studied over the years. Thermal adaptations of cell components such as proteins and RNA are well studied, but adaptations of interactions between these components must be also vital for the thermophiles. Protein-DNA interactions play crucial roles in...

Factors that are related to thermostability of proteins have been extensively studied in recent years, especially by comparing thermophiles and mesophiles. However, most of them are global characters. It is still not clear how to identify specific residues or fragments which may be more relevant to protein thermostability. Moreover, some of the differences among the thermophiles and mesophiles ...

"Anaerocellum thermophilum" DSM 6725 is a strictly anaerobic bacterium that grows optimally at 75 degrees C. It uses a variety of polysaccharides, including crystalline cellulose and untreated plant biomass, and has potential utility in biomass conversion. Here we report its complete genome sequence of 2.97 Mb, which is contained within one chromosome and two plasmids (of 8.3 and 3.6 kb). The g...

Proteases are very important industrial enzymes, which contribute about 60% of the total world enzyme market. Among the various proteases, bacterial proteases are the most significant, compared with animal and fungal proteases (Rahman et al., 1994) and among bacteria, Bacillus sp are specific producers of extra-cellular proteases (Coolbear et al., 1992; Banerjee et al., 1999). These enzymes hav...

Extremely thermophilic microorganisms have been sources of thermostable and thermoactive enzymes for over 30 years. However, information and insights gained from genome sequences, in conjunction with new tools for molecular genetics, have opened up exciting new possibilities for biotechnological opportunities based on extreme thermophiles that go beyond single-step biotransformations. Although ...

Studies that compare proteins from thermophilic and mesophilic organisms can provide insights into ability of thermophiles to function at their high habitat temperatures and may provide clues that enable us to better define the forces that stabilize all proteins. Most of the comparative studies have focused on thermal stability and show, as expected, that thermophilic proteins have higher Tm va...

Fifty mesophilic and five moderately thermophilic strains of acidophilic heterotrophic bacteria were tested for the ability to reduce ferric iron in liquid and solid media under aerobic conditions; about 40% of the mesophiles (but none of the moderate thermophiles) displayed at least some capacity to reduce iron. Both rates and extents of ferric iron reduction were highly strain dependent. No a...

Accumulation of non-degradable plastic waste in the environment might be prevented by use biodegradable polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA). In this study, thermophile Schlegelella thermodepolymerans produced up to 80 wt% PHA based on dry cell mass. The largest granules were found cells within 48 h using 20 g/L xylose, a C/N ratio 100, an initial pH 7, at 50 °C. substrate consumption, changes, and growt...

The hydrophobic effect is the major force driving protein folding. Around room temperature, small organic solutes and hydrophobic amino acids have low solubilities in water and the hydrophobic effect is the strongest. These facts suggest that globular proteins should be maximally stable around room temperature. While this fundamental paradigm has been expected, it has not actually been shown to...