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The Extreme Conditions of Life on the Planet and Exobiology

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Environmental Microbiology: Fundamentals and Applications

Abstract

Extreme physicochemical conditions (low and high temperatures, high salinity, low and high pH, high hydrostatic pressure, etc.) existing on Earth are compatible with the occurrence of microbial life. The diversity and metabolic features of microbial trophic groups inhabiting extreme environments (cold, hot, saline, acidic, alkaline, and deep marine) are described. They include hydrothermal vents, acid springs, hypersaline and/or alkaline lakes, permafrost, and deep-sea environments, etc.

To live or survive under such drastic conditions, prokaryotes (Bacteria or Archaea) have developed a variety of physiological and metabolic strategies allowing them to adapt to in situ extreme conditions. Many of these extremophiles are recognized to be of industrial interest or to be potential candidates for future biotechnological applications.

Clearly, the discovery of extremophiles living in terrestrial, subterrestrial, and deep marine environments has changed our perception of microbial life. One or a combination of extreme physicochemical conditions that they have to face may have prevailed in the primitive atmosphere and favored early extremophilic life not only on Earth but perhaps also on other planets.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut Méditerranéen d’Océanologie (MIO), UM 110, CNRS 7294, IRD 235, Université de Toulon, Aix-Marseille Université, Campus de Luminy, 13288, Marseille Cedex 9, France

    Jean-Luc Cayol, Bernard Ollivier & Didier Alazard

  2. Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa (CSIC-UAM), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Cantoblanco, 28049, Madrid, Spain

    Ricardo Amils

  3. Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC-INTA), 28850, Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain

    Ricardo Amils

  4. Laboratoire de Microbiologie des Environnements Extrêmes, UMR 6197 (UMR CNRS/IFREMER/Université de Bretagne Occidentale), BP70, 29280, Plouzané, France

    Anne Godfroy & Daniel Prieur

  5. Laboratoire de Biochimie, Université de Liège, 4000, Liège, Belgique

    Florence Piette

Authors
  1. Jean-Luc Cayol
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  2. Bernard Ollivier
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  3. Didier Alazard
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  4. Ricardo Amils
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  5. Anne Godfroy
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  6. Florence Piette
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  7. Daniel Prieur
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jean-Luc Cayol or Bernard Ollivier .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Université de Toulon, Aix-Marseille Université, Institut Méditerranéen d’Océanologie (MIO), UM 110, CNRS 7294 IRD 235, Cedex 9, Marseille, France

    Jean-Claude Bertrand

  2. Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour, Institut des Sciences Analytiques et de Physico-chimie pour l’Environnement et les Matériaux (IPREM), UM 110, CNRS 5254, Pau Cedex, France

    Pierre Caumette

  3. Observatoire Océanologique de Banyuls, Laboratoire de Biodiversité et Biotechnologie Microbiennes (LBBM), Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ, Paris 06, USR CNRS 3579, Banyuls-sur-Mer, France

    Philippe Lebaron

  4. Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d’Ecologie marine et continentale (IMBE), UMR-CNRS-IRD 7263, Aix-Marseille Université, Cedex 20, Marseille, France

    Robert Matheron

  5. Microbial Ecology Center, UMR CNRS 5557/USC INRA 1364, Villeubanne, France

    Philippe Normand

  6. Laboratoire Microorganismes: Génome et Environnement (LMGE), UMR CNRS 6023, Université Blaise Pascal, Clermont Université, Aubère Cedex, France

    Télesphore Sime-Ngando

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Cayol, JL. et al. (2015). The Extreme Conditions of Life on the Planet and Exobiology. In: Bertrand, JC., Caumette, P., Lebaron, P., Matheron, R., Normand, P., Sime-Ngando, T. (eds) Environmental Microbiology: Fundamentals and Applications. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9118-2_10

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