Microbial Life in the Trenches
Abstract
Microbiologists have been making use of advances in ocean engineering to explore life in deep-sea trenches for decades, including for many years preceding man’s conquest of the Challenger Deep. This has fostered the development of an unusual branch of microbiology, referred to as high-pressure microbiology. Evidence for deep-trench microbes that grow best at elevated hydrostatic pressure was first obtained in the early 1950s, and isolates were obtained in pure cultures beginning in the early 1980s. Here I describe some of the history of deep-trench microbiology and the characteristics of microbial life in the trenches.
Microbiologists have been making use of advances in ocean engineering to explore life in deep-sea trenches for decades, including for many years preceding man’s conquest of the Challenger Deep. This has fostered the development of an unusual branch of microbiology, referred to as high-pressure microbiology. Evidence for deep-trench microbes that grow best at elevated hydrostatic pressure was first obtained in the early 1950s, and isolates were obtained in pure cultures beginning in the early 1980s. Here I describe some of the history of deep-trench microbiology and the characteristics of microbial life in the trenches.
Keywords: Barophile; Challenger Deep; High pressure; Piezophile; Trench
Document Type: Research Article
Publication date: 01 December 2009
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