SREL Reprint #2845
Alkalithermophiles: A double challenge from extreme environments
V. V. Kevbrin1, C. S. Romanek2 and J. Wiegel3
1lnstitute
of Microbiology RAS, Prospect 60-Ietija Octiabria, 7/2, 117312 Moscow,
Russia
2Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, Aiken, SC and Department
of Geology,
University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
3Department of Microbiology, University of Georgia, Athens,
GA 30602-2605, USA
Introduction: The study of extremophilic microorganisms,
in short extremophiles, has increased drastically over the last few years.
An illustration for this increased interest is the establishment of the
new International Society for Extremophiles and the recently introduced
journal Extremophiles. Microorganisms are named extremophiles when they
are well adapted to and grow optimally at environmental and physicochemical
parameters unsuitable for the typical and widely studied mesophilic microorganisms,
such as Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis and Neurospora
crassa, to name a few.
Despite the accelerated description of novel species, most of the described
extremophiles are characterized only by one distinctive 'extreme'. In
this chapter, we discuss a subgroup of 'multi-extremophiles' coined the
alkalithermophiles (also referred to as thermoalkaliphiles). . .
SREL Reprint #2845
Kevbrin, V. V., C. S. Romanek, and J. Wiegel. 2004. Alkalithermophiles: A double challenge from extreme environments. pp. 1-16 In J. Seckbach (Ed.). Origins: Genesis, Evolution and Diversity of Life. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, NL.