Extremophiles -bacteria and archaea- are fundamental for the understanding of life on Earth - and most probably beyond the Earth. The knowledge about higher or superior living forms surpasses, by and large, the knowledge we have about extremophiles.
To be sure, one salient feature of life is that living beings do process information. Whereas much research has been carried out regarding mammals and plants, very little or nothing has been said in respecto to the various extremophiles (acidophilus, etc.).
I am trying to do some research on this issue. Could you please help me? Thank you very much.
Thank you very much dear Artur. I have already found her here on RG... Gonna read about her publications.
thanks arthur, even i would refer joanna papers on RG. since i had future plan of working on it....thanks carlos sir for your input too....
Dear Carlos Maldonado: Surely that I am also interested in learning more with biologists about this subject too. Recent discovers in Mars can give some insight? Wikipedia (link below) may be a good starting point for complementing your answer: “Most known extremophiles are microbes.” …
According to the second link below (The Encyclopedia of earth): “Extremophiles are thought to have been some of the earliest lifeforms on earth, since such early organisms would have to be adapted to harsh conditions, at least in comparison to present day environments. Extremophiles may exist on other bodies in the solar system, such as Jupiter's moon Europa or on Mars. Some microorganism extremophiles have shown industrial potential, such as the ability to remove sulfur compounds from crude oil at high temperatures.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremophile
http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/160977/
Dear Antonio, I appreciate your contribution. The story of the discovery of extremophiles is a passionating one, even though it is a recent phenomenon in the history of biology. Furthermore, as you mention, the variety of the extremophiles is nearly fantastic: it is almost impossible to turn one's head and not finding life.
Nonetheless, it seems that little attention has been paid to the understanding of how they process information, provided the fact that information processing is a fundamental feature of living beings.
I find your question a little confusing. What do you mean by 'process information'? From a biologist's perspective all cells 'process information' through signaling pathways. The 'input' is received by a receptor and then depending on the signal and pathway activated/repressed the information is processed by the cell. This is usually/often carried out through the regulatory networks in the cell. Since you are interested in extremophiles we have to talk about all three Domains of Life as each Domain has extremophiles. Bacteria have a set of regulatory networks that are mostly unique to them (two component signal transduction, etc.) but can also be found in some Archaea. The Archaea are generally a mix of bacterial and eukaryal features with a few of their own specific features. Eukarya also have their own set of regulatory networks.
Anyway, I think I have to disagree with you about the volume of information on extremophiles. Yes, there is more information about mesophilic, multicellular organisms compared to extremophiles. However, there is also a lot known about extremophiles too. You can look at my page on RG and find a couple of papers I've published on extremophiles. Or you can go to the journal 'Extremophiles' (http://link.springer.com/journal/792), which is published by Springer.
Dear James, thank you very much for your comment. I do know the Springer journal, indeed. That one is the best one regarding the subject - by and large.
I am particularly concerned about a computational approach to the process information in extemophiles. You are right: there is a large bibliography on extremophiles. However, little about how they process information. Let me please as an analogy mention this: a number of groups have carried out wonderful research about the way in which bacteria process information; or scilliates, f.i. The same interest about extremophiles is rather reduced...
I shall read your papers. Thank you for pointing them to me.
- Badges
- Science method
- Similar topics
- Biological Science
- Ecology