Essay Sample on Extremophiles: Adapting to Uninhabitable Environments

Introduction

Extremophiles are the organisms that inhabit extreme environments (Singh, Jain, Desai, Tiwari, & Madamwar, 2019). They thrive in habitats that are intolerably hostile or lethal for other terrestrial life-forms. They thrive in salt solutions, ice and extreme hot niches. Others may grow in toxic wastes, organic solvents and heavy metals (Haruta & Kanno, 2015). The extremophiles take three domains in life, which are bacteria, archaea and eukaryote. Majority of the extremophiles are microorganisms where a large proportion of them are archaea. Eukaryotes include protists such as protozoa and fungi (Rampelotto, 2013). Members of archaea tend to be less versatile compared to bacteria and eukaryotes.

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An example of a thermophilic microbe growing in extremely high temperatures is menthanopyrus kandleri that grows at 122o C (which is 252 oF and is the highest recorded temperature). The organism belongs to the archaea group that lives in environments that are rich in hydrogen-carbon dioxide. The primary way of survival and obtaining energy is through the stability of proteins and the cell membranes (Reed, Lewis, Trejo, Winston, & Evilia, 2013). Their membranes consist of lipids that contain ether bonds. These lipid membranes of ether-containing lipids can stay in the liquid-crystal state in wide temperature ranges; hence the archaea can survive.

An example of a halophilic eukaryote (organisms requiring sodium chloride for growth) is the brine fly larvae that serve as an essential food for the birds. They have specialised organs in their bodies that remove excess sales from their bodies hence allowing them to tolerate highly saline water (Aguilera, 2013). It is difficult for their food supply to survive in water exceeding 20% salinity. They mostly live underwater during winters.

During the case where there is a drop in the temperatures, the larvae become inactive and remain there until when the temperatures rise during spring. They survive the high concentrations of salt through the synthesis of osmoprotectants that are also known as compatible solutes (Hoff, 2009). They work by balancing the internal osmotic pressure with the external one hence making the two solutions isotonic for survival. For energy, they use aerobic respiration (Sundarasami, Sridhar, & Mani, 2019). They can also convert light into energy through the use of a pigment known as bacteriorhodopsin.

An example of a bacteria best adopted to extreme conditions is cyanobacteria. It can develop in the Antarctic ice and the hot springs. It can also be found in hypersaline and alkaline lakes as well as high metal concentrations and low water availability areas (Nedbalova, 2018). When living conditions become quite harsh, the bacteria forms specialised dehydrated cells, also known as endospores that protect the cells against the environmental conditions such as heat or drought. The bacteria have fantastic survival mechanisms incorporated into their genome. They produce various enzymes and proteins that help them overcome adversities. They produce heat shock and cold shock proteins to protect the cell from extreme conditions (Reddy, Yadav, & Abraham, 2018). Similarly, they toughen up the wall of the cell so that the membrane does not lose its integrity.

Conclusion

Cyanobacteria obtain energy and nutrients through the process of oxygenic photosynthesis. Bacteria also decompose dead organisms and wastes as well as break chemical compounds to get energy (Genuario, Vaz, Santos, Kavamura, & Melo, 2019). Cyanobacteria also have a renewable source of energy. It uses the energy from the sun, water and carbon dioxide to synthesize the energy storage components such as lipids and carbohydrates.

References

Aguilera, A. (2013). Eukaryotic organisms in extreme acidic environments, the rio tinto case. Life, 3(3), 363-374. Doi: 10.3390/life3030363

Genuario, D. B., Vaz, M. G., Santos, S. N., Kavamura, V. N., & Melo, I. S. (2019). Cyanobacteria from Brazilian Extreme Environments: Toward Functional Exploitation. In Microbial Diversity in the Genomic Era (pp. 265-284). Academic Press. Retrieved from https://www.alice.cnptia.embrapa.br/bitstream/doc/1104105/1/CLMeloISMicrobialDiversityInTheGenomicEraCianobacterias...cap16PA....pdf

Haruta, S., & Kanno, N. (2015). Survivability of microbes in natural environments and their ecological impacts. Microbes and Environments, 30(2), 123-125. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4462920/

Hoff, M. (2009). Surviving salt: how do extremophiles do it? PLoS biology, 7(12).

Rampelotto, P. H. (2013). Extremophiles and extreme environments. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4187170/

Reddy, Y. P., Yadav, R. K., & Abraham, G. (2018). Screening of cyanobacterial isolates from Rann of Kutch for the production of mycosporine-like amino acids. IJCS, 6(3), 1639-1645. Retrieved from https://www.mdpi.com/1660-3397/15/7/233

Reed, C. J., Lewis, H., Trejo, E., Winston, V., & Evilia, C. (2013). Protein adaptations in archaeal extremophiles. Archaea, 2013. Retrieved from https://www.hindawi.com/journals/archaea/2013/373275/

Singh, P., Jain, K., Desai, C., Tiwari, O., & Madamwar, D. (2019). Microbial community dynamics of extremophiles/extreme environment. In Microbial Diversity in the Genomic Era (pp. 323-332). Academic Press. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Prachi_Singh25/publication/328737893_Microbial_Community_Dynamics_of_ExtremophilesExtreme_Environment/links/5bdfff5d4585150b2b9f589b/Microbial-Community-Dynamics-of-Extremophiles-Extreme-Environment.pdf

Sundarasami, A., Sridhar, A., & Mani, K. (2019). Halophilic archaea as beacon for exobiology: Recent advances and future challenges. In Advances in Biological Science Research (pp. 197-214). Academic Press. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128174975000136