Extremophiles in biotechnology
Extremophiles are organisms that thrive in the most volatile environments on the planet and due to their talents, they have begun playing a large role in biotechnology.
Scientists show keen interest in organisms with rare or strange talents and in the past 20-30 years extremophiles have been at the forefront with thousands of researchers delving into their abilities.
[2] Thanks to the discovery and interest in these organisms the enzymes used in polymerase chain reaction (PCR) were found, making the rapid replication of DNA in the lab possible.
Since they gained the spotlight researchers have been amassing databases of genome data for the hopes that new traits and abilities can be used to further biotechnical advancements.
Currently the main uses of extremophiles lies in processes such as PCR, biofuel generation and biomining, but there are many other smaller scale operations at play.
Extremophile is the term that covers a large group of organisms, most prominently Archaeans, which have evolved to fill the niches of extremely inhospitable environments.
A few examples of these locations include thermal vents at the bottom of the ocean, soda lakes, runoffs from chemical factories and the trash heaps of landfills.
Their ability to consume and thrive in areas of such salinity open up possible benefits such as inoculating crops in salt rich soils to help them grow.
This is due to the fact that general biological enzymes, proteins and other various organic compounds have very specific requirements for them to function properly.
Catalysts that involve changes in temperature, salinity, or acidity can impact the mesophilic organic compounds and products within a given process which in turn negatively affects the outcome.
[citation needed] To overcome this issue scientists have turned to extremophiles due to their natural abilities to handle extreme conditions.
PCR uses one of the heat resistant enzymes found in the thermophile T. aquaticus to rapidly and efficiently make copies of specific strands of DNA.
These extremophiles in large quantities are able to take in various substances such as sugars, cellulose, and various waste products to produce methane, butanol and biodiesel.
Cyanidium caldarium is noted as one of the most promising strains due to the high lipid content of the biodiesel products it creates.
[9] While this application has not yet widely developed to large scale utilization, scientists working in this field hope to find an efficient and sustainable solution involving extremophiles soon.
Thanks to the increased interest in extremophiles the revolutionary technique of PCR was pioneered and brought the field of DNA study to the next level.
Some biotechnical labs are looking into using extremophiles engineered to produce portions of viruses on their surface to elicit immune system responses.
