A mesophile is an organism that grows best in moderate temperature, neither too hot nor too cold, with an optimum growth range from 20 to 45 °C (68 to 113 °F).
Extremophiles that prefer cold environments are termed psychrophilic, those preferring warmer temperatures are termed thermophilic or thermotropic and those thriving in extremely hot environments are hyperthermophilic.
A genome-wide computational approach has been designed by Zheng, et al. to classify bacteria into mesophilic and thermophilic.
[4] Due to the less stable structure of mesophiles, it has reduced flexibility for protein synthesis.
The most evident explanation is that thermophiles are believed to have cell components that are relatively more stable than the cell components of mesophiles which is why thermophiles are able to live at higher temperatures than mesophiles.
[9] "A second school of thought, as represented by the writings of Gaughran (21) and Allen (3), believes that rapid resynthesis of damaged or destroyed cell constituents is the key to the problem of biological stability to heat.
Microorganisms play an important role in decomposition of organic matter and mineralization of nutrients.
[11] Both mesophiles and thermophiles are used in cheesemaking for the same reason; however, they grow, thrive and die at different temperatures.
Psychrotrophic bacteria contribute to dairy products spoiling, getting mouldy or going bad due to their ability to grow at lower temperatures such as in a refrigerator.
Some notable mesophiles include Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, and Escherichia coli.
Different types of diseases and infections typically have pathogens from mesophilic bacteria such as the ones listed above.
Long lasting infections of S. aureus includes pneumonia, meningitis, and osteomyelitis.
[13] Escherichia coli is a gram-negative, rod-shaped facultative anaerobic bacterium that does not produce spores.