How do thermoacidophiles obtain nutrients?

What are the conditions for thermoacidophiles?

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Thermoacidophiles are microorganisms that thrive in the high temperature and low pH conditions of a geothermal spring.0157101. Methanogens produce methane, which is used as a carbon source for many other organisms. In addition, the products of methane oxidation include H~2~S and SO~2~, which can be toxic to other organisms. Thus, it is advantageous for methanogens to live in close association with sulfate reducing bacteria that use H~2~S and SO~2~ as electron donors. The first group is the mesophiles, which grow at temperatures between 37C and 55C. The second group is the psychrophiles, which grow at temperatures below 10C. Finally, the third group is thermophiles, which grow at temperatures above 80C. Most thermoacidophiles are mesophiles, while only a few thermophiles have been isolated., which are methanogens that thrive in the low pH environment of deep subsurface rock environments.

How do thermoacidophiles obtain nutrients?

What sources of energy are they able to utilize?

How do they harvest them and convert them to energy?

One way to address this question is to consider how the chemolithotrophs utilize organic matter. We do not know if they get their carbon from the same source, or whether they consume dissolved organic matter, bacteria or a combination of both. Most species can utilize a wide variety of compounds including amino acids, peptides, sugars, alcohols, fatty acids, polysaccharides, proteins and various other compounds.

Some chemolithotrophs are able to use a broad spectrum of substrates. For example, the extremely acidophilic Acidithiobacillus caldus and Candidatus Caldothrix acetigena utilize both peptides and proteins and their ability to use peptides is particularly impressive. Caldus can utilize peptides as the sole carbon source, while C. Acetigena utilizes peptides and proteins simultaneously. Caldus utilizes peptides as its sole carbon source when grown on amino acids. In contrast, C. Acetigena can utilize proteins as its sole carbon source, but does not utilize amino acids as its carbon source.

Caldus has been found in many environments where there is a large concentration of hydrolyzed proteins, but so far no examples of amino acid-utilizing chemolithotrophic communities have been found that grow in the presence of amino acids. It appears that caldus can grow under these conditions, but no amino acid-utilizing chemolithotrophs have been isolated to date.

In addition to peptides and proteins, chemolithotrophs can utilize carbohydrates, lipids, polysaccharides and nucleic acids as sources of carbon and energy. In most cases, the organisms that are able to utilize these compounds are associated with the hydrothermal vent environment. Chemolithotrophs are also able to utilize iron and manganese oxides as electron acceptors.

The following is a list of chemolithotrophs that utilize carbohydrates, lipids, polysaccharides and nucleic acids as their sole carbon source: Caldithrix acetigena - A chemolithotrophic thiobacillus that utilizes proteins and peptides as its sole carbon source, and utilizes lipids as its sole energy source.

What is the habitat of thermophiles?

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In most of the world, humans live at or near temperatures where the ambient air does not cause damage to human cells. However, life evolved in anoxic watery habitats around hot springs on Earth and in other planets, including Mars. These habitats exist in the atmosphere above volcanoes and hydrothermal vents, in oceanic crust, or as isolated ponds or seeps on wet land. Even on Earth, certain species of reptiles are endemic to cold, polar caves where oxygen is low and temperatures drop to <100C (212F). It lives in deep-sea vents, such as those at Yellowstone, and produces the industrial enzyme horseradish peroxidase. Other forms of life adapt to high heat and/or acidity: some microorganisms are able to metabolize metal (eg copper) ions and grow in hot-spring environments with pH <1.5 or 11. For all these organisms and many others, life must have been established at or near 100C (212F) before humans could reach there. We are not interested in such thermophiles, but we often think about them as we imagine extraterrestrial life forms.

If heat and radiation damage DNA, why are there thermophiles? ============================================================. In 1859 the Austrian physician Ignaz Semmelweis, after noticing that an epidemic of puerperal fever had ceased among midwives in the maternity ward where he worked, discovered that infection was spread when he started to wash women's hands with chlorinated lime water. Later in the nineteenth century the great Polish physiologist Ptorak found that heating living tissue increases the amount of oxygen dissolved in the cells, which provides additional reducing power for energy metabolism and DNA repair; this may explain why tissues grow quickly at 37C (99F) temperature. If heat and radiation damage DNA, why are there so many thermo-tolerant life forms on Earth? The obvious candidate was DNA repair.

Why do thermophiles survive in high temperature environments?

In general, they must have evolved to have a very high capacity for generating energy by chemosynthesis without any need for sunlight.

Why didn't they evolve the ability to use sunlight like aerobic thermophiles?

The environment itself seems to be an issue, the most efficient way to get energy out of our surroundings is by burning food and that consumes a lot of O2 which would limit our activity in high temperature environments. In order to maximize energy production we would want to burn things on the inside and produce as much heat as possible.

If the environment is not going to move at all, how would the temperature change affect the population density? Aerobic organisms would be able to increase in abundance over time while thermophiles would decrease. This should probably happen as long as the environment is stable. Thermophiles in high temp environments might be more of a niche species though.

Thermophiles don't actually use the sun, they are an extreme part of the spectrum of life so there isn't much of a difference between them and bacteria. They use chemosynthesis using hydrogen for oxidization.

Thermophiles and halophiles seem to be fairly similar, and their adaptations have nothing to do with how energy is obtained, but rather how energy is stored.