Despite substantial interest in the species diversity of the human microbiome and its role in
disease, the scale of its genetic diversity, which is fundamental to deciphering human …

When it comes to the investigation of key ecosystems in the world, we often omit salt from the
ecological recipe. In fact, despite occupying almost half of the volume of inland waters and …

In hypersaline environments, Nanohaloarchaeota (Diapherotrites, Parvarchaeota,
Aenigmarchaeota, Nanoarchaeota, Nanohaloarchaeota [DPANN] superphylum) are thought …

Virophages are small dsDNA viruses that hijack the machinery of giant viruses during the co-
infection of a protist (ie, microeukaryotic) host and represent an exceptional case of …

Archaea use a molecular machine, called the archaellum, to swim. The archaellum consists
of an ATP-powered intracellular motor that drives the rotation of an extracellular filament …

Psychrophilic organisms possess several adaptive strategies which allow them to sustain
life at low temperatures between− 20 to 20° C. Studies on Antarctic psychrophiles are …

Background Antarctica and its unique biodiversity are increasingly at risk from the effects of
global climate change and other human influences. A significant recent element …

Halophilic archaea (haloarchaea) are known to exhibit multiple chromosomes, with one
main chromosome and one or several smaller secondary chromosomes or megaplasmids …

Abstract Changes in the sequence of an organism's genome, ie, mutations, are the raw
material of evolution. The frequency and location of mutations can be constrained by specific …

Background Cold environments dominate the Earth's biosphere and microbial activity drives
ecosystem processes thereby contributing greatly to global biogeochemical cycles. Polar …