Polyextremophiles [electronic resource] : Life Under Multiple Forms of Stress / edited by Joseph Seckbach, Aharon Oren, Helga Stan-Lotter.

PART 1: OPENING CHAPTERS -- Introduction -- Foreword -- Preface -- List of Authors and Their Addresses -- PART 2: GENERAL ASPECTS -- Polyextremophiles and the Constraints for Terrestrial Habitability -- Life on the Edge and Astrobiology: Who Is Who in the Polyextremophiles World -- The Dynamic Genomes of Acidophiles -- PART 3: HALOPHILES -- Two Centuries of Microbiological Research in the Wadi Natrun, Egypt: A Model System for the Study of the Ecology, Physiology, and Taxonomy of Haloalkaliphilic Microorganisms -- Adaptation in Haloalkaliphiles and Natronophilic Bacteria -- A Random Biogeochemical Walk into Three Soda Lakes of the Western USA: With an Introduction to a Few of their Microbial Denizens -- Halophilic, Acidophilic, and Haloacidophilic Prokaryotes -- Life in Magnesium- and Calcium-Rich Hypersaline Environments: Salt Stress by Chaotropic Ions -- Survival Strategies of Halophilic Oligotrophic and Desiccation Resistant Prokaryotes -- Radiation Resistance in Extremophiles: Fending Off Multiple Attacks -- PART 4: THERMOPHILES -- Thermoalkaliphilic Microbes -- Acido- and Thermophilic Microorganisms, Their Features and Identification of Novel Enzymes or Pathways -- Microbial Diversity in Acidic High Temperature Steam Vents -- PART 5: PSYCHROPHILES -- Left Out in the Cold: Life in Cryoenvironments -- Microbial Diversity and Enzymes in Ikaite Columns; A Cold and Alkaline Environment in Greenland -- Microbial Communities Thriving in Various Ice Ecosystems -- Snow Algae. Adaptation Strategies to Survive on Snow and Ice -- Adaptation of Antarctic Freshwater Green Algae to the Extreme Environments -- PART 6: PRESSURE -- Deep Sub-Surface Oil Reservoirs as Poly-Extreme Habitats for Microbial Life. A Current Review -- Expanding Limits for Life to a New Dimension: Microbial Growth at Hypergravity -- PART 7: OXYGEN RELATIONSHIPS -- Microbial Eukaryotes in Marine Oxygen Minimum Zones -- Deep Hypersaline Anoxic Basins as Model Systems for Environmental Selection of Microbial Plankton -- Microbial Eukaryotes in Hypersaline Anoxic Deep Sea Basins -- Life at High Salt and Low Oxygen: How Do the Halobacteriaceae Cope with Low Oxygen Concentrations in their Environment? -- PART 8: SELECTED ORGANISMS -- Niches and Adaptations of Polyextremotolerant Black Fungi -- Polyextremophilic Photoautotrophic Eukaryotic Algae -- Extremophilic Magnetotactic Bacteria -- Multicellular Extremophiles – The Case of the Tardigrades -- PART 9: FINAL COMMENTS -- Polyextremophiles - Summary and Conclusions -- Organism Index -- Subject Index -- Author Index.

Many Microorganisms and some macro-organisms can live under extreme conditions. For example, high and low temperature, acidic and alkaline conditions, high salt areas, high pressure, toxic compounds, high level of ionizing radiation, anoxia and absence of light, etc. Many organisms inhabit environments characterized by more than one form of stress (Polyextremophiles). Among them are those who live in hypersaline and alkaline, hot and acidic, cold/hot and high hydrostatic pressure, etc. Polyextremophiles found in desert regions have to cope with intense UV irradiation and desiccation, high as well as low temperatures, and low availability of water and nutrients. The chapters of this book provide an updated picture of our current understanding of the distribution of polyextremophilic microorganisms in nature and about the special physiological and biochemical properties that enable them to withstand multiple environmental extremes. It provides descriptions of unusual and less explored ecosystems such as Earth's cryosphere, marine hypersaline deeps, hot and cold desert environments, hot springs with elevated temperature and low or high pH. This book provides novel results of application to polyextremophiles research ranging from nanotechnology to synthetic biology to the origin of life and beyond. The topics of this volume are of importance not only for the understanding of the limits of life on Earth, but also for Astrobiology with the exploration of the possibility of life ‘as we know it’ to be present on other extraterrestrial bodies in the Universe.