Life in the Extremes
Halophiles
Radioresistant Microbes
Acidophiles
Psychrophiles
Extreme Ability
Extreme Environments
Extreme Examples
Extreme Examples
Extreme Ability
Extreme Environments
Barophiles
Alkaliphiles
Xerophjiles
Thermophiles
Endoliths
Extreme Ability
Extreme Examples
Extreme Environments
Extreme Environments
Extreme Ability
Extreme Examples
Extreme Examples
Extreme Ability
Extreme Environments
Coat themselves with a special protein layer which allows only certain levels of salt into the cell.
The water in salt ponds and other halophilic environments
The Great Salt Lake in Utah, Owens Lake in Cali-fornia, and the Dead Sea between israel and Jordan.
Require temperatures below -4 °F to survive. To protect their DNA, some species produce splcial proteins that act as anti-freezing agents.
Arctic soils, deep ocean water, glaciers, snow-fields, sea ice, and tundra.
Can cause widespread crop disease. Leifsonia sp., for example, are especially destructive bacteria that have caused enormous amounts of damage to sugarcane crops.
Survive in very acidic environments where pH rarely rises above 3.
Mine drainages, waste treatment plants, and sulfuric acid hot springs.
Acidophiles play a complex role in acid mine drainage and some are used in coal mining to recover metallic minerals and to reduce sulfur levels.
Extreme Ability
Extreme Examples
Survive doses of radiation that are 500 times greater than the lethal dose for humans.
Extreme Environments
The remains of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor,
Deinococcus radiodurans is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as "the world's toughest bacterium."
Extreme Environments
The ocean floor where pressures are 400 times greater than on Earth's surface.
Extreme Ability
Thrive under high pressure. They evolved a waxy cell layer which protects against crushing pressures and frigid temperatures.
Extreme Examples
The barophile Halomonas salaria requires a pressure 1000 times grater than Earth's surface atmosphere just to stay alive!
Thrive in substances that are capable of neutralizing strong acids. These alkaline environments typically have pH values ranging from 9 to 11.
Inhabit such places as soda lakes, caves, alkaline hot springs, deserts, and waste dumps from mines.
Are used in making paper and recovering spilled oil. They are also common ingredients in dishwashing detergent and laundry soap.
Can grow and reproduce in conditions with little water available.
Can live in deserts and salt beds where most living creatures would dehydrate quickly!
Mold growth on bread is an example of food spoilage by xerophilic organisms. Xerophiles commonly live on food that has been dried for storage outside of the refrigerator.
Extreme Environments
Hot springs, crater lakes, peat bogs, and superheated hydrothermal vents on the sea floor
Extreme Ability
Have developed special proteins that allow them to tolerate a broad range of temperatures-some even require temperatures around 140 °F to exist at all.
Extreme Examples
Thermus aquaticus, a bacterium found in a Yellowstone hot spring, produces an enzyme that allows for quick DNA replication
Extreme Environments
Rocks in deserts and on mountain slopes often contain endoliths.
Extreme Ability
Make their homes inside of rocks. They can live for hundreds of years by feeding on the traces of iron, phosphorus, and sulfur in their host rocks.
Extreme Examples
Many scientists think that endoliths are a good candidate for the type of life most likely to be discovered living on Mars now or in the past