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EMBO reports 7, 4, 385–389 (2006)
doi:10.1038/sj.embor.7400662
Psychrophilic microorganisms: challenges for life
Salvino D'Amico1, 2, Tony Collins1, 2, Jean-Claude Marx1, 2, Georges Feller1, 2 & Charles Gerday1, 2
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1 Laboratory of Biochemistry, Institute of Chemistry B6, University of Liege, Sart-Tilman, B-4000 Liege, Belgium
2 All authors contributed equally to this work
To whom correspondence should be addressed
Charles Gerday Tel: +32 4 366 3347; Fax: +32 4 366 3364; E-mail: ch.gerday@ulg.ac.be
Received 7 November 2005; Accepted 11 January 2006.
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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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