bioprospecting in extreme environments

Tamas Torok, Center for Environmental Biotechnology

Contact: 510/486-5808 ttorok@lbl.gov

“Where there is life, there are microbes” - Carl Woese

Research Objectives
Extremophilic microorganisms are adapted to survive in such ecological niches as high temperatures, extremes of pH, high salt concentrations, and high pressures. Therefore, extremophilic microorganisms represent a challenging scientific opportunity, not only for those interested in microbial diversity and the evolution of life, but for researchers searching for clues to extraterrestrial life. Also, extremophiles produce unique biocatalysts that function under extreme conditions comparable to those prevailing in various industrial processes. Bioprospecting for extremophiles with potential immediate use in the food, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries—and in environmental biotechnology—is therefore highly relevant.

In fulfilling the national security and biological nonproliferation missions of the U.S. Department of Energy, the main objective of this research is to establish a multiyear bioprospecting program for novel biotechnology applications in the extreme environments of the Newly Independent States (NIS) of the former Soviet Union. In previous years, the program collected environmental samples in the exclusion zone of the failed nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, around Lake Baikal in Siberia, and on the Kamchatka peninsula. Currently, we are expanding our research to the deserts and hot springs in Uzbekistan, the Caucasus mountain sites in Georgia, and the former nuclear test site in Kazakhstan.

To continue reading more about this project, view the 1-page pdf here.