By sensing changes in one or few environmental factors biological systems can anticipate future changes in multiple factors over a wide range of time scales (daily to seasonal). This anticipatory behavior is important to the fitness of diverse species, and in context of the diurnal cycle it is overall typical of eukaryotes and some photoautotrophic bacteria but is yet to be observed in archaea....

For a few seconds a gamma-ray burst (GRB) becomes the brightest object in the Universe, over-shining the rest of the Universe combined! Clearly this reflects extreme conditions that are fascinating and worth exploring. The recent discovery of GRB afterglow have demonstrated that we are on the right track towards the resolution of this long standing puzzle. These observations have confirmed the ...

The extremely halophilic archaeon Halobacterium sp. NRC-1 can grow phototrophically by means of light-driven proton pumping by bacteriorhodopsin in the purple membrane. Here, we show by genetic analysis of the wild type, and insertion and double-frame shift mutants of Bat that this transcriptional regulator coordinates synthesis of a structural protein and a chromophore for purple membrane biog...

Bacteriorhodopsin, a model system in nanobiotechnology, is a light-sensitive protein found in the archaean Halobacterium salinarum and a very identical protein to visual Rhodopsin. The modification of biological function of BR and its versatile properties is valuable for technical applications including the artificial retina. These photoactive elements of native and particular mutants of bacter...

Onishi, H. (National Research Council, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada), and D. J. Kushner. Mechanism of dissolution of envelopes of the extreme halophile Halobacterium cutirubrum. J. Bacteriol. 91:646-652. 1966.-Envelopes of Halobacterium cutirubrum dissolved rapidly in media of low ionic strength. Heating partially inhibited breakdown, probably because of nonspecific protein coagulation rather than i...