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Life at the extreme

Yellowstone Park - Credit: "Jurvetson" via Flickr, under a CC-BY license.Living creatures can be found thriving in the harshest of environments - from the deepest parts of the ocean to dry arid deserts, and even in the vacuum of space.
 
How life evolved and adapted to survive and thrive in extreme environments is just as fascinating as finding them there in the first place. This collection of articles examines life (whether microbial or macro) in all extreme environments and how these lifeforms adapted to their environment, providing us with the evolutionary insights that may be crucial in the face of a rapidly changing climate. The specific ecophysiology of these species are key to understanding how to generate energy from non-traditional sources, and a stronger understanding of the very earliest days of life itself.

Extremophiles are specifically adapted to their particular niche environment; with many evolutionary adaptations allowing anaerobes, thermophiles and halophiles to flourish in these environments.

We cordially invite research and review papers in this new cross-journal series, looking at the mechanistic adaptation of any species which thrive in extreme environments. Submissions are welcomed to Frontiers in Zoology, Movement EcologyZoological Letters, Annals of MicrobiologyEnvironmental Microbiome, Animal Microbiome and Microbiome

This series will be edited by the main editors for each journal, and will be open for submissions until 31st December 2023. We look forward to receiving your submissions.

Submit to Animal Microbiome.

Submit to Annals of Microbiology.

Submit to Environmental Microbiome.

Submit to Frontiers in Zoology.

Submit to Microbiome.

Submit to Movement Ecology.

Submit to Zoological Letters.

  1. The extreme conditions of thermal springs constitute a unique aquatic habitat characterized by low nutrient contents and the absence of human impacts on the microbial community composition. Thus, these springs...

    Authors: Tereza Smrhova, Kunal Jani, Petr Pajer, Gabriela Kapinusova, Tomas Vylita, Jachym Suman, Michal Strejcek and Ondrej Uhlik
    Citation: Environmental Microbiome 2022 17:48
  2. In contrast to earlier assumptions, there is now mounting evidence for the role of tundra soils as important sources of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O). However, the microorganisms involved in the cycling ...

    Authors: Igor S. Pessi, Sirja Viitamäki, Anna-Maria Virkkala, Eeva Eronen-Rasimus, Tom O. Delmont, Maija E. Marushchak, Miska Luoto and Jenni Hultman
    Citation: Environmental Microbiome 2022 17:30
  3. Deep-sea hydrothermal vents represent unique ecosystems that redefine our understanding of the limits of life. They are widely distributed in deep oceans and typically form along mid-ocean ridges. To date, the...

    Authors: Jie Pan, Wei Xu, Zhichao Zhou, Zongze Shao, Chunming Dong, Lirui Liu, Zhuhua Luo and Meng Li
    Citation: Microbiome 2022 10:8

    The Correction to this article has been published in Microbiome 2022 10:40

  4. Metal corrosion in seawater has been extensively studied in surface and shallow waters. However, infrastructure is increasingly being installed in deep-sea environments, where extremes of temperature, salinity...

    Authors: Pauliina Rajala, Dong-Qiang Cheng, Scott A. Rice and Federico M. Lauro
    Citation: Microbiome 2022 10:4
  5. Deep-sea animals in hydrothermal vents often form endosymbioses with chemosynthetic bacteria. Endosymbionts serve essential biochemical and ecological functions, but the prokaryotic viruses (phages) that deter...

    Authors: Kun Zhou, Ying Xu, Rui Zhang and Pei-Yuan Qian
    Citation: Microbiome 2021 9:182
  6. Terrestrial hot spring settings span a broad spectrum of physicochemistries. Physicochemical parameters, such as pH and temperature, are key factors influencing differences in microbial composition across dive...

    Authors: Chanenath Sriaporn, Kathleen A. Campbell, Martin J. Van Kranendonk and Kim M. Handley
    Citation: Microbiome 2021 9:135
  7. Cryptoendolithic communities are microbial ecosystems dwelling inside porous rocks that are able to persist at the edge of the biological potential for life in the ice-free areas of the Antarctic desert. These...

    Authors: Davide Albanese, Claudia Coleine, Omar Rota-Stabelli, Silvano Onofri, Susannah G. Tringe, Jason E. Stajich, Laura Selbmann and Claudio Donati
    Citation: Microbiome 2021 9:63
  8. Extreme terrestrial, analogue environments are widely used models to study the limits of life and to infer habitability of extraterrestrial settings. In contrast to Earth’s ecosystems, potential extraterrestri...

    Authors: Alexandra Kristin Bashir, Lisa Wink, Stefanie Duller, Petra Schwendner, Charles Cockell, Petra Rettberg, Alexander Mahnert, Kristina Beblo-Vranesevic, Maria Bohmeier, Elke Rabbow, Frederic Gaboyer, Frances Westall, Nicolas Walter, Patricia Cabezas, Laura Garcia-Descalzo, Felipe Gomez…
    Citation: Microbiome 2021 9:50
  9. The sulfur cycle encompasses a series of complex aerobic and anaerobic transformations of S-containing molecules and plays a fundamental role in cellular and ecosystem-level processes, influencing biological c...

    Authors: Adrien Vigneron, Perrine Cruaud, Alexander I. Culley, Raoul-Marie Couture, Connie Lovejoy and Warwick F. Vincent
    Citation: Microbiome 2021 9:46
  10. Disentangling the dynamics of microbial interactions within communities improves our comprehension of metacommunity assembly of microbiota during host development and under perturbations. To assess the impact ...

    Authors: Bachar Cheaib, Hamza Seghouani, Martin Llewellyn, Katherine Vandal-Lenghan, Pierre-Luc Mercier and Nicolas Derome
    Citation: Animal Microbiome 2021 3:3
  11. Almost one third of Earth’s land surface is arid, with deserts alone covering more than 46 million square kilometres. Nearly 2.1 billion people inhabit deserts or drylands and these regions are also home to a ...

    Authors: Peter Osborne, Lindsay J. Hall, Noga Kronfeld-Schor, David Thybert and Wilfried Haerty
    Citation: Environmental Microbiome 2020 15:20
  12. Deep-sea hydrothermal vents are highly productive biodiversity hotspots in the deep ocean supported by chemosynthetic microorganisms. Prominent features of these systems are sulfide chimneys emanating high-tem...

    Authors: Jialin Hou, Stefan M. Sievert, Yinzhao Wang, Jeffrey S. Seewald, Vengadesh Perumal Natarajan, Fengping Wang and Xiang Xiao
    Citation: Microbiome 2020 8:102
  13. Recent studies have significantly expanded our knowledge of viral diversity and functions in the environment. Exploring the ecological relationships between viruses, hosts, and the environment is a crucial fir...

    Authors: Shao-Ming Gao, Axel Schippers, Nan Chen, Yang Yuan, Miao-Miao Zhang, Qi Li, Bin Liao, Wen-Sheng Shu and Li-Nan Huang
    Citation: Microbiome 2020 8:89
  14. In a warmer world, microbial decomposition of previously frozen organic carbon (C) is one of the most likely positive climate feedbacks of permafrost regions to the atmosphere. However, mechanistic understandi...

    Authors: Xuanyu Tao, Jiajie Feng, Yunfeng Yang, Gangsheng Wang, Renmao Tian, Fenliang Fan, Daliang Ning, Colin T. Bates, Lauren Hale, Mengting M. Yuan, Linwei Wu, Qun Gao, Jiesi Lei, Edward A. G. Schuur, Julian Yu, Rosvel Bracho…
    Citation: Microbiome 2020 8:84
  15. Marine Group I (MGI) Thaumarchaeota, which play key roles in the global biogeochemical cycling of nitrogen and carbon (ammonia oxidizers), thrive in the aphotic deep sea with massive populations. Recent studies h...

    Authors: Haohui Zhong, Laura Lehtovirta-Morley, Jiwen Liu, Yanfen Zheng, Heyu Lin, Delei Song, Jonathan D. Todd, Jiwei Tian and Xiao-Hua Zhang
    Citation: Microbiome 2020 8:78
  16. Spaceflight impacts astronauts in many ways but little is known on how spaceflight affects the salivary microbiome and the consequences of these changes on astronaut health, such as viral reactivation. In orde...

    Authors: Camilla Urbaniak, Hernan Lorenzi, James Thissen, Crystal Jaing, Brian Crucian, Clarence Sams, Duane Pierson, Kasthuri Venkateswaran and Satish Mehta
    Citation: Microbiome 2020 8:56
  17. Resident soil microbiota play key roles in sustaining the core ecosystem processes of terrestrial Antarctica, often involving unique taxa with novel functional traits. However, the full scope of biodiversity a...

    Authors: Eden Zhang, Loïc M. Thibaut, Aleks Terauds, Mark Raven, Mark M. Tanaka, Josie van Dorst, Sin Yin Wong, Sally Crane and Belinda C. Ferrari
    Citation: Microbiome 2020 8:37
  18. Apicomplexans are the causative agents of major human diseases such as malaria and toxoplasmosis. A novel group of apicomplexans, recently named corallicolids, have been detected in corals inhabiting tropical ...

    Authors: Samuel A. Vohsen, Kaitlin E. Anderson, Andrea M. Gade, Harald R. Gruber-Vodicka, Richard P. Dannenberg, Eslam O. Osman, Nicole Dubilier, Charles R. Fisher and Iliana B. Baums
    Citation: Microbiome 2020 8:34
  19. It is well-known that global warming has effects on high-latitude tundra underlain with permafrost. This leads to a severe concern that decomposition of soil organic carbon (SOC) previously stored in this regi...

    Authors: Jiajie Feng, Cong Wang, Jiesi Lei, Yunfeng Yang, Qingyun Yan, Xishu Zhou, Xuanyu Tao, Daliang Ning, Mengting M. Yuan, Yujia Qin, Zhou J. Shi, Xue Guo, Zhili He, Joy D. Van Nostrand, Liyou Wu, Rosvel G. Bracho-Garillo…
    Citation: Microbiome 2020 8:3
  20. Climate models predict substantial changes in temperature and precipitation patterns across Arctic regions, including increased winter precipitation as snow in the near future. Soil microorganisms are consider...

    Authors: Jana Voříšková, Bo Elberling and Anders Priemé
    Citation: Environmental Microbiome 2019 14:6
  21. Sulfate reduction is an important biogeochemical process in the ecosphere; however, the major taxa of sulfate reducers have not been fully identified. Here, we used epicPCR (Emulsion, Paired Isolation, and Con...

    Authors: Huayu Qin, Shang Wang, Kai Feng, Zhili He, Marko P. J. Virta, Weiguo Hou, Hailiang Dong and Ye Deng
    Citation: Microbiome 2019 7:71