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Pyrobaculum |
Classification:
Kingdom: Monera (bacteria)
Phylum: Archaebacteria Class: Thermoprotei Order: Thermoproteales Family: Thermoproteaceae Genus: Pyrobaculum Species: Pyrobaculum aerophilum Pyrobaculum masks! How to make them
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Whew! It gets a little bit hot in the summer here in the UK once in a while, but to this little fellow the inside of the hottest bus on the hottest day of the year would feel like January in the Highlands! Pyrobaculum are a type of thermophilic (or "heat-loving") bacteria which thrive in places we once thought were far too toasty to support life. P. aerophilum prefer temperatures of about 100°C (212°F), and things get too cold for them to grow at around 75°C (167°F). The highest temperatures ever recorded in the UK are around 40°C (104°F), so it's pretty obvious that there's not really anywhere on earth where Pyrobaculum could handle the air temperature— to them the hottest desert would feel like a deep freeze. So where do they live? Most thermophilic bacteria we know of live in liquid environments like hot springs, and Pyrobaculum aerophilum are no exception. They were first identified in seawater heated to boiling by underwater lava flows near Ischia, a volcanic island off the coast of Italy. Archaebacteria, the group that includes most "extremophiles" like thermophiles and psychrophiles (or "cold loving" organisms) fascinate scientists because they are so different from all other living things. Most biologists now consider Archaea a "sixth kingdom," or even something more fundamentally different; a major division of life which has been evolving away from its common ancestor with bacteria as long as we humans have! The exciting thing about extremophiles that they offer the possibility of life in places we never thought we'd find it; could bacteria travel through outer space? Could they live on the surface of hot planets like Mercury, or freezing places like Saturn's moon Titan? To boldly go...On the Web:
P. aerophilum on MicrobeWiki.
Thermophiles on Wikipedia. Strain 121, named for its favorite Celsius temperature, likes things even hotter! This article's from Astrobiology.com, a pretty interesting place. |
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