Ecology and Genetics of Deep-sea Thermophiles
LI Xuegong, Zhang Yu and Xiao Xiang
from: Thermophilic Microorganisms (Edited by: Fu-Li Li). Caister Academic Press, U.K. (2015) Pages: 1-12.
Abstract
Hydrothermal vent is a typical deep sea ecosystem hosting the largest reservoir of archaea and many bacteria. Through a mixing of hot venting fluid and cold sea water under high hydrostatic pressure, a special environment was created with a steep gradient in terms of temperature, redox potential, pH and substrate concentration. In the past 30 years, the metagenome based analysis has showed at least 20 archaeal orders/lineages and 13 bacterial orders habituating in hydrothermal venting area, among which only a few have cultivatable represents due to the technique difficulties on incubation. Thus, to construct the genetic systems on the model strains become especially necessary. The hydrothermal vent systems and the (hyper) thermophiles are irreplaceable biological materials for a better understanding of life strategy and exploiting for industry use read more ...
