Limits of life in hostile environments: no barriers to biosphere function?

James P. Williams, John E. Hallsworth

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

134 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Environments that are hostile to life are characterized by reduced microbial activity which results in poor soil- and plant-health, low biomass and biodiversity, and feeble ecosystem development. Whereas the functional biosphere may primarily be constrained by water activity (a w) the mechanism(s) by which this occurs have not been fully elucidated. Remarkably we found that, for diverse species of xerophilic fungi at a w values of = 0.72, water activity per se did not limit cellular function. We provide evidence that chaotropic activity determined their biotic window, and obtained mycelial growth at water activities as low as 0.647 (below that recorded for any microbial species) by addition of compounds that reduced the net chaotropicity. Unexpectedly we found that some fungi grew optimally under chaotropic conditions, providing evidence for a previously uncharacterized class of extremophilic microbes. Further studies to elucidate the way in which solute activities interact to determine the limits of life may lead to enhanced biotechnological processes, and increased productivity of agricultural and natural ecosystems in arid and semiarid regions.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3292-3308
Number of pages17
JournalEnvironmental Microbiology
Volume11
Issue number12
Early online date16 Oct 2009
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2009

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Microbiology
  • Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Limits of life in hostile environments: no barriers to biosphere function?'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this