Bacterial Biodiversity, Cold Adaptation and Biotechnological Importance of Bacteria Occurring in Antarctica

Abstract

Antarctica is the coldest, iciest, windiest and driest continent and defines the limits of temperature at which life forms can survive and divide. These cold loving microorganisms are known as psychrophiles and are present in all the unique habitats of Antarctica including permafrost and ice. Their distribution and abundance varies from habitat to habitat and several new genera and species have been discovered in the icy continent. They have several strategies by which they survive and divide at low temperature such as the ability to catalyze reactions and continue metabolism with cold-tolerant enzymes; ability to maintain optimum membrane fluidity at low temperature; occurrence of specific genes required for survival at low temperatures; presence of antifreeze–activity etc.. Enzymes from psychrophilic bacteria have been found to be useful for several purposes ranging from recombinant DNA technology to food processing. The ability of cold-tolerant organisms to degrade petroleum products and other environmental pollutants highlight them as potential candidates for bioremediation in extreme cold environments. The recently reported genome sequences of a number of novel cold-tolerant isolates are likely to provide some more insights into the mechanism of bacterial cryotolerance.