- Piezophile
A piezophile (also called a barophile) is an
organism which thrives athigh pressure s, such as deep seabacteria orarchaea . They are generally found on ocean floors, where pressure often exceeds 380 atm (38 MPa). Some have been found at the bottom of thePacific Ocean where the maximum pressure is roughly 117 MPa. The high pressures experienced by these organisms can cause the normally fluidcell membrane to become waxy and relatively impermeable to nutrients.Evolution has forced these organisms to adapt in novel ways to become tolerant of these pressures in order tocolonize deep seahabitats ."Barotolerant" bacteria are able to survive at high pressures, but can exist in less extreme environments as well. "Obligate barophiles" cannot survive outside of such environments. For example, the
Halomonas species "Halomonas salaria " requires a pressure of 1000 atm (100 MPa) and a temperature of 3 degreesCelsius . Most piezophiles grow in darkness and are usually very UV-sensitive; they lack many mechanisms of DNA repair.References
*cite journal
author=Sharma, A.
coauthors=Scott, J. H.; Cody, G. D.; Fogel, M. L.; Hazen, R. M.; Hemley, R. J.; and Huntress, W. T.
title=Microbial activity at gigapascal pressures
journal=Science
volume=295
issue=5559
pages=1514–16
year=2002
month=Feb
pmid=11859192
doi=10.1126/science.1068018ee also
*
Archaea
*Bacteria
*Cell membrane
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