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.

This information was provided by the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (srel.uga.edu).