The Molecular Basis for Life in Extreme Environments

Sampling and genomic efforts over the past decade have revealed an enormous quantity and diversity of life in Earth's extreme environments. This new knowledge of life on Earth poses the challenge of understanding its molecular basis in such inhospitable conditions, given that such conditions lead to loss of structure and of function in biomolecules from mesophiles. In this review, we discuss the physicochemical properties of extreme environments. We present the state of recent progress in extreme environmental genomics. We then present an overview of our current understanding of the biomolecular adaptation to extreme conditions. As our current and future understanding of biomolecular structure-function relationships in extremophiles requires methodologies adapted to extremes of pressure, temperature, and chemical composition, advances in instrumentation for probing biophysical properties under extreme conditions are presented. Finally, we briefly discuss possible future directions in extreme biophysics.

Automated summary

Over the past decade, sampling and genomic efforts have revealed a vast quantity and diversity of life in Earth's extreme environments, presenting a challenge in understanding the molecular basis of life in such inhospitable conditions. This review discusses the physicochemical properties of extreme environments, recent progress in extreme environmental genomics, and the current understanding of biomolecular adaptation to extreme conditions, as well as the need for methodologies adapted to extreme conditions for studying extremophiles' biomolecular structure-function relationships. Possible future directions in extreme biophysics are briefly discussed.