Psychrophiles and Psychrotrophs

Psychrophiles are extremophilic bacteria or archaea which are cold-loving, having an optimal temperature for growth at about 15°C or lower, a maximal temperature for growth at about 20°C and a minimal temperature for growth at 0°C or lower. Psychrotrophs are cold-tolerant bacteria or archaea that have the ability to grow at low temperatures, but have optimal and maximal growth temperatures above 15 and 20°C, respectively. The Earth has extensive cold ecosystems that do not reach temperatures greater than 5°C (e.g. worldwide deep oceans, polar surface, polar ice-cap regions, permafrost). Psychrophiles and psychrotrophs are cold-loving extremophiles adroitly adapted to these environmental conditions, and are often capable of enduring extended periods of cryobiosis.

Keywords: barophiles; cryophiles; cryobiosis; psychrotrophs; psychrophiles; extremophiles

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    D'Amico S, Claverie P, Collins T et al. (2002) Molecular basis of cold adaptation. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences 357: 917–925.
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    Russell NJ (1990) Cold adaptation of microorganisms. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences 326: 595–611.
    Russell NJ (2000) Toward a molecular understanding of cold activity of enzymes from psychrophiles. Extremophiles 4: 83–90.
    Veld GI, Driessen AJ and Konings WN (1993) Bacterial solute transport proteins in their lipid environment. FEMS Microbiology Reviews 12: 293–314.
    Zecchinon L, Claverie P, Collins T et al. (2001) Did psychrophilic enzymes really win the challenge? Extremophiles 5: 313–321.
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Moyer, Craig L, and Morita, Richard Y(Apr 2007) Psychrophiles and Psychrotrophs. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0000402.pub2]