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Updated: May 14, 2026

Adaptation at the Extremes of Life: Experimental Evolution with the Extremophile Archaeon Sulfolobus acidocaldarius
Published on: June 14, 2024
Extreme Thermophiles: Moving beyond single-enzyme biocatalysis
Andrew D Frock1, Robert M Kelly
1Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7905.
Abstract:
Extremely thermophilic microorganisms have been sources of thermostable and thermoactive enzymes for over 30 years. However, information and insights gained from genome sequences, in conjunction with new tools for molecular genetics, have opened up exciting new possibilities for biotechnological opportunities based on extreme thermophiles that go beyond single-step biotransformations. Although the pace for discovering novel microorganisms has slowed over the past two decades, genome sequence data have provided clues to novel biomolecules and metabolic pathways, which can be mined for a range of new applications. Furthermore, recent advances in molecular genetics for extreme thermophiles have made metabolic engineering for high temperature applications a reality.
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