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Review
. 2006 Apr;7(4):385-9.
doi: 10.1038/sj.embor.7400662.

Psychrophilic microorganisms: challenges for life

Salvino D'Amico  1 , Tony Collins, Jean-Claude Marx, Georges Feller, Charles Gerday
Affiliations
Review

Psychrophilic microorganisms: challenges for life

Salvino D'Amico et al. EMBO Rep. 2006 Apr.

Abstract

The ability of psychrophiles to survive and proliferate at low temperatures implies that they have overcome key barriers inherent to permanently cold environments. These challenges include: reduced enzyme activity; decreased membrane fluidity; altered transport of nutrients and waste products; decreased rates of transcription, translation and cell division; protein cold-denaturation; inappropriate protein folding; and intracellular ice formation. Cold-adapted organisms have successfully evolved features, genotypic and/or phenotypic, to surmount the negative effects of low temperatures and to enable growth in these extreme environments. In this review, we discuss the current knowledge of these adaptations as gained from extensive biochemical and biophysical studies and also from genomics and proteomics.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Thermodependence of activity for the cold-adapted cellulase from Pseudoalteromonas haloplanktis (EGG) and its mesophilic homologue from Erwinia chrysanthemi (EGZ).
None
J.-C. Marx, G. Feller, T. Collins, C. Gerday & S. D'Amico
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