LIFE IN EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS

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1 LIFE IN EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS

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3 Life in Extreme Environments by RICARDO AMILS Universidad Auto noma de Madrid, Centro de Biologı a Molecular del CSIC, Madrid, Spain CYNAN ELLIS-EVANS British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, United Kingdom and HELMUT HINGHOFER-SZALKAY Medical University, Institute of Physiology, Graz, Austria 123

4 A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN ISBN Published by Springer, P.O. Box 17, 3300 AA Dordrecht, The Netherlands. Printed on acid-free paper All Rights Reserved Ó 2007 Springer No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.

5 TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface... vii Methodology 1. Access to glacial and subglacial environments in the Solar System by melting probe technology Exploration of Ellsworth Subglacial Lake: a concept paper on the development, organisation and execution of an experiment to explore, measure and sample the environment of a West Antarctic subglacial lake Thermostable proteins as probe for the design of advanced fluorescence biosensors Geology 4. Astrobiological significance of minerals on Mars surface environment Industrial barrens: extreme habitats created by non-ferrous metallurgy Microbial life in extreme environments Viruses 6. Viruses in extreme environments Bacteria and microbial foodwebs 7. Microbial ecology of submerged marine caves and holes characterised by high levels of hydrogen sulphide Extremely halophilic archaea and the issue of long-term microbial survival Planktonic microbial assemblages and the potential effects of metazooplankton predation on the food web of lakes from the maritime Antarctica and sub-antarctic islands Fungi and yeasts 10. Fungi in Antarctica Ecology and molecular adaptations of the halophilic black yeast Hortaea werneckii

6 vi Table of Contents Life strategies of plants in extreme environments 12. Ultraviolet radiation shapes seaweed communities Life strategy, ecophysiology and ecology of seaweeds in polar waters Life expansion in Sørkapp Land, Spitsbergen, under the current climate warming Some views on plants in polar and alpine regions Desiccation-tolerant plants in dry environments Energy dependant plant stress acclimation Life strategies of animals in extreme environments 18. Post-capture investigations of hydrothermal vent macro-invertebrates to study adaptations to extreme environments Adaptations to hypoxia in hydrothermal-vent and cold-seep invertebrates How does the annelid Alvinella pompejana deal with an extreme hydrothermal environment? Pressure and life: some biological strategies Molecular evolution of haemoglobins of polar fishes Metal detoxification and homeostasis in Antarctic Notothenioids. A comparative survey on evolution, expression and functional properties of fish and mammal metallothioneins Predicting the impacts of climate change on the evolutionary adaptations of polar fish Human adaptation in extreme environments 25. Human challenges in polar and space environments Hypometabolic induced state: a potential tool in biomedicine and space exploration A proposed classification of environmental adaptation: the example of high altitude The challenge of the food sufficiency through salt tolerant crops

7 Preface Published online: 22 November 2006 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V From our studies of some of the deepest parts of the oceans, the highest mountains, the coldest polar regions and the hottest and most arid deserts, we now know that life exists in numerous parts of the planet that, only a few years ago, were considered incapable of supporting life. In addition, data obtained from space research have provided tantalizing evidence of environments for possibly supporting life elsewhere in our Solar System. Life in extreme environments is an appealing and exciting subject as it sits at a convergence point for two important questions for mankind: How did life appear on our planet? and Is there life beyond our planet? The harshness of Earth-based extreme environments offer the closest approximation to the conditions that probably existed when life first appeared on our planet but also offer potential analogues for conditions on other planetary bodies. Addressing the topic of life in extreme environments is also very relevant for one of today s most crucial issues: the impact of human activity on ecosystems. B. Andersson (&) European Science Foundation (ESF), Strasbourg cedex, France ceo@esf.org The investigation of life processes in extreme environments has a broad spectrum of relevance, including both societal and economical considerations. These exciting areas of research (whether considering microbes, plants or animals, including humans) are at an early stage and focus on environments that have in the past been difficult to investigate. However they are set to benefit tremendously from the new technological developments (e.g. robotics, information technologies, simulation techniques) as well as from the use of the rapidly developing tools of molecular biology and bioinformatics and are ideal targets for the consideration of species within their whole ecosystems. Actions should be taken to move research in this direction. At the European level the scientific community currently studying extreme environments is significant and well regarded but its structure is relatively fragmented. The benefits resulting from improved coordination and information exchange within this community are clear and implementing greater networking represents a significant challenge to Europe for the future. In 2004, the European Science Foundation (ESF) launched a call for Expressions of Interest for research topics. The substantial response and high quality of ideas received as well as the broad diversity of domains covered encouraged ESF to set up an informal group of experts in November 2004 and to fund a large interdisciplinary 123

8 viii Preface workshop in November 2005: the first integrated interdisciplinary initiative at the European level. It was aimed at identifying the points of view, priorities and recommendations of the European scientific community on these matters and the resulting report is to be published in the first quarter Alongside this initiative and complementing the report, the European Science Foundation is happy to have provided support to this special issue of Reviews in Environmental Science and Biotechnology on the topic of Life in Extreme Environments. Professor Bertil Andersson Chief Executive European Science Foundation (ESF) 123