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Review
. 2020 Jan 30;18(2):91.
doi: 10.3390/md18020091.

Deep Hypersaline Anoxic Basins as Untapped Reservoir of Polyextremophilic Prokaryotes of Biotechnological Interest

Stefano Varrella  1 , Michael Tangherlini  2 , Cinzia Corinaldesi  1
Affiliations
Review

Deep Hypersaline Anoxic Basins as Untapped Reservoir of Polyextremophilic Prokaryotes of Biotechnological Interest

Stefano Varrella et al. Mar Drugs. .

Abstract

Deep-sea hypersaline anoxic basins (DHABs) are considered to be among the most extreme ecosystems on our planet, allowing only the life of polyextremophilic organisms. DHABs' prokaryotes exhibit extraordinary metabolic capabilities, representing a hot topic for microbiologists and biotechnologists. These are a source of enzymes and new secondary metabolites with valuable applications in different biotechnological fields. Here, we review the current knowledge on prokaryotic diversity in DHABs, highlighting the biotechnological applications of identified taxa and isolated species. The discovery of new species and molecules from these ecosystems is expanding our understanding of life limits and is expected to have a strong impact on biotechnological applications.

Keywords: blue biotechnologies; deep hypersaline anoxic basins; extremozymes; limits of life; marine prokaryotes; microbial diversity; polyextremophiles.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Global distribution of deep hypersaline anoxic basins (DHABs) (a). Locations and corresponding names of DHABs identified in the Red Sea (b1–b2), the Gulf of Mexico (c), and the Mediterranean Sea (d).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Simplified vertical section of a DHAB. The transition from the overlying seawater to the brine is commonly referred to as the halocline or brine–seawater interface, which is characterized by gradients of temperature, salinity, pH, and dissolved oxygen (A); the main biogeochemical processes taking place within the halocline are shown in (B). From left to right, the manganese cycle, the sulfate reduction and sulfide oxidation cycle, the methanogenesis and aerobic (anaerobic) methane oxidation cycle, and the anammox and denitrification cycle that occur in the halocline are shown [8,21,23,28,29,30]. DOC: Dissolved Organic Carbon.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Phylogenetic tree of bacterial and archaeal strains isolated from DHABs. The tree was built using 16S rRNA gene sequences from [66,83,84,85] and phylogenetically close 16s rRNA sequences from the SILVA database v132.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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