Abstract:

The ability of psychrophiles to survive and proliferate at low temperatures implies that they have overcome key barriers inherent to permanently cold environments. These challenges include: reduced enzyme activity; decreased membrane fluidity; altered transport of nutrients and waste products; decreased rates of transcription, translation and cell division; protein cold-denaturation; inappropriate protein folding; and intracellular ice formation. Cold-adapted organisms have successfully evolved features, genotypic and/or phenotypic, to surmount the negative effects of low temperatures and to enable growth in these extreme environments. In this review, we discuss the current knowledge of these adaptations as gained from extensive biochemical and biophysical studies and also from genomics and proteomics.

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Psychrophilic microorganisms: challenges for life

^{Laboratory of Biochemistry, Institute of Chemistry B6, University of Liege, Sart-Tilman, B-4000 Liege, Belgium}

^{All authors contributed equally to this work}

^{Tel: +32 4 366 3347; Fax: +32 4 366 3364; E-mail:}eb.ca.glu@yadreg.hc

Received 2005 Nov 7; Accepted 2006 Jan 11.

Abstract

The ability of psychrophiles to survive and proliferate at low temperatures implies that they have overcome key barriers inherent to permanently cold environments. These challenges include: reduced enzyme activity; decreased membrane fluidity; altered transport of nutrients and waste products; decreased rates of transcription, translation and cell division; protein cold-denaturation; inappropriate protein folding; and intracellular ice formation. Cold-adapted organisms have successfully evolved features, genotypic and/or phenotypic, to surmount the negative effects of low temperatures and to enable growth in these extreme environments. In this review, we discuss the current knowledge of these adaptations as gained from extensive biochemical and biophysical studies and also from genomics and proteomics.

Keywords: cold adaptation, enzymes, genomics, membrane fluidity, psychrophiles

Abstract

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the generous support of the Institut Polaire Français, the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS; Belgium), the Region Wallonne (Belgium) and the European Union. S.D.'A. is a FNRS postdoctoral researcher.

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