Barophiles: Deep-sea microorganisms adapted to an extreme environment

Current Opinion in Microbiology

Volumn 1, Issue 3, 1998, Pages 291-295

  Horikoshi, Koki ^a  

^a JAPAN AGENCY FOR MARINE EARTH SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY   (Japan)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ADAPTATION; BACTERIAL PHENOMENA AND FUNCTIONS; HYDROSTATIC PRESSURE; MICROBIOLOGY; REVIEW; SEA; TEMPERATURE;

ADAPTATION, BIOLOGICAL; BACTERIAL PHYSIOLOGY; HYDROSTATIC PRESSURE; OCEANS AND SEAS; TEMPERATURE; WATER MICROBIOLOGY;

EID: 0032082973     PISSN: 13695274     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/S1369-5274(98)80032-5     Document Type: Article

References (30)

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6. Kato C, Inoue A, Horikoshi K: Isolating and characterizing deep-sea marine microorganisms. Trends Biotechnol 1996, 14:6-12.
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8. Li L, Kato G, Horikoshi K: Distribution of the pressure regulated operons in deep-sea bacteria. FEMS Microbiol Lett 1998, 159:159-166. DNA regions corresponding to portions of two different pressure-regulated opérons previously identified in two deep-sea barophilic bacteria were separately PCR amplified from a variety of deep-sea microorganisms and sequenced. With the two sets of primers employed, amplification was particularly successful from the more barophilic bacteria examined. 16S rRNA sequence analysis revealed that these bacteria are all phylogenetically related and belong in a sub-branch of the genus Shewanella containing only the deep-sea Shewanella barophilic bacteria. This sub-branch as the 'Shewanella barophile branch' contained at least two different species. The results suggest that the DNA sequences of the pressure-regulated operons can be regarded as marker sequences to identify the Shewanella barophilic strains.
9. Kato C, Li L, Tamaoka J, Horikoshi K: Molecular analyses of the sediment of the 11000-m deep Mariana Trench. Extremophiles 1997, 1:117-123. DNA fragments were extracted from the sediment from the world's deepest sea trench, the Mariana Trench challenger point at a depth of 10,898 m. DNAs encoding several prokaryotic ribosomal RNA small-subunit sequences and pressure-regulated gene clusters, typically identified in deep-sea-adapted bacteria, were amplified by the polymerase chain reaction. From the sequencing results, at least two kinds of bacterial 16S rRNAs closely related to the genus Pseudomonas and deep-sea-adapted marine bacteria, and archaeal 16S rRNAs related to the 16S rRNA of a planktonic marine archaeon, were identified. The sequences of the amplified pressure-regulated clusters were more similar to those of deep-sea barophilic bacteria than those of barotolerant bacteria. These results suggest that deep-sea-adapted barophilic bacteria, planktonic marine archaea, and some of the world's most widespread bacteria (the genus Pseudomonas) coexist in the world's deepest sea trench.
10. Takami H, Inoue A, Fujii F, Horikoshi K: Microorganisms isolated from the deepest sea mud of Mariana Trench. FEMS Microbiol Lett 1997, 152:279-285. Thousands of microbes were isolated from a mud sample collected from the Mariana Trench. The microbial flora found at a depth of 10,897 m was composed of actinomycetes, fungi, no-extremophilic bacteria and various extremophiles such as alkaliphiles, thermophiles, barophiles and psychrophiles. Phylogenetic analysis of the isolates based on 163 rDNA sequences revealed that a wide range of taxa were represented.
11. Kato C, Li L, Nogi Y, Nakamura Y, Tamaoka J, Horikoshi K: Extremely barophilic bacteria isolated from the Mariana Trench Challenger Deep at a depth of 11,000. Extremophiles 1998, 2:in press. Two strains of obligately barophilic bacteria were isolated from sample of the world's deepest sediment, obtained by the unmanned deep-sea submersible KAIKO in the Mariana Trench, Challenger Deep at a depth of 10,898 m, Phylogenetic analysis based on 163 ribosomal RNA gene sequences, a DNA-DNA relatedness study and an analysis of fatly acids composition showed that the first strain (DB21MT-2) appears to be highly similar to Shewanella benthica and close relatives, and the second strain (DB21MT-5) appears to be closely related to the genus Moritella. The optimal pressure conditions for growth of these isolates were 70 MPa for strain DB21MT-2 and 80 MPa for strain DB21MT-5, and no growth was detected at pressures below 50 MPa with either strain. This is the first evidence of the existence of an extremely barophilic bacterium of the genus Moritella isolated from the deep-sea environment.
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25. Michels PC, Clark DS: Pressure-enhanced activity and stability of a hyperthermophilic protease from a deep-sea methanogen. Appl Environ Microbiol 1997, 63:3985-3991. Properties of a hyperthermophilic, barophilic protease from Methanococcus jannaschii, an extremely thermophtlic deep-sea methanogen, were studied. This enzyme is the first protease to be isolated from an organism adapted to a high-pressure and high temperature environment. The partially purified enzyme has a molecular mass of 29kDa and a narrow substrate specificity with strong preference for leucine at the pi site of polypeptide substrates. Enzyme activity increased as the temperature increased up to 116°C and was measured up to 130°C, one of the highest temperatures reported for the function of any enzyme. In addition, enzyme activity and thermoslability increased with pressure: raising the pressure to 500 atm increased the reaction rate at 125°C by 3.4-fold and the thermostability by 2.7-fold. Spin labeling of the active-site serine revealed that the active-site geometry of the M. jannaschii protease is not grossly different from that of several mesophilic proteases; however, the active-site structure may be relatively rigid at moderate temperatures. The barophilic and thermophilic behavior of the enzyme is consistent with the barophilic growth of M. jannaschii observed previously.
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27. Kato C, Sato T, Smorawinska M, Horikoshi K: High pressure conditions stimulate expression of chloramphenicol acetyltransferase regulated by the lac promoter in Escherichia coli. FEMS Microbiol Lett 1994, 122:91-96.
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30. Welch TJ, Bartlett DH: Isolation and characterization of structural gene for OmpL, a pressure-regulated porin-like protein from the deep-sea bacterium Photobacterium species strain SS9. J Bacteriol 1996, 178:5027-5031. This paper shows inverse pressure regulation of ompH and ompL gane expression in the genetically manipulatable moderate barophile Photobacterium sp. SS9. These genes encode outer membrane proteins. The ompH protein is maximally abundant when SS9 is grown at its pressure optimum, 28 MPa, whereas the ompL protein is produced in greatest quantity when SS9 is grown at 0.1 MPa. Although ompH mutants are not high-pressure-sensitive and ompL mutants are not low-pressure-sensitive, physiological experiments with various mutants suggest that ompH may enable the uptake of a greater range of nutrients than ompL, a trait which could be important in the deep sea where nutrients are frequently limiting.