From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Extremophile bacteria
Why in the News?
Researchers have isolated extremophile bacteria from harsh environments like volcanic vents, permafrost, acid mines, deep-sea hydrothermal vents, and lakes beneath polar ice caps.
What are Extremophiles?
- Extremophiles are microorganisms that thrive in extreme environmental conditions where other life forms typically cannot survive.
- For example: Volcanic vents, Permafrost, Acid mines, Deep-sea hydrothermal vents, dark lakes buried beneath polar ice caps, on the exteriors of spacecraft, around nuclear waste storage sites.
Adaptation and Evolution:
- Extremophiles have developed unique biological and biochemical processes over millions of years to adapt to diverse habitats.
- Unlike more complex life forms, which have one set of proteins, extremophiles have multiple sets of proteins, each adapted to specific environmental conditions.
- These proteins are ‘activated’ based on the surrounding environment, enabling survival during extreme conditions like high temperatures, lack of water, or high acidity.
- Significance: Some scientists believe that life on Earth may have begun as an extremophile in extreme environmental niches before spreading and adapting to more temperate ecosystems.
About the ‘Earth Microbiome Project’
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PYQ:[2017] With reference to agriculture in India, how can the technique of ‘genome sequencing’, often seen in the news, be used in the immediate future? 1. Genome sequencing can be used to identify genetic markers for disease resistance and drought tolerance in various crop plants. 2. This technique helps in reducing the time required to develop new varieties of crop plants. 3. It can be used to decipher the host-pathogen relationships in crops. Select the correct answer using the code given below: (a) 1 only (b) 2 and 3 only (c) 1 and 3 only (d) 1, 2 and 3 |
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