How+They+Survive

Them ...

**//What Are Archaea: //** media type="youtube" key="VU-A6Sx7k-U" height="315" width="420" align="center"

Archaea, the domain to which thermophiles belongs to, is well referred to as"The Third Domain" They were first discovered in 1966, by biologist Thomas Brock from the University of Wisconsin, in Madison, was studying the hot-springs of Yellowstone National Park, and made and amazing discovery ... The thermophile.The specfic species discovered was named by him - the Thermus aquaticus, literaly "from hot water"

This organism could survive temperatures hotter than any other organism known, around 170° degrees farenheit. Thats almost boiling point. The discoveries at this point of history mainly involved enzymes, and no surprise was shown when this microbe showed enzymic properties that could break down DNA.

//Their Environments: // Thermophile derives from the greek phrase "thermo - heat", "Philia-love". This makes it a heat lover. And we shouldn't deny that a microbe that can call a 300F black smoker, home, does not like hot. It also has other extremophile (extreme condition lover) cousins, like the pressure loving barophiles, the acid loving acidophiles or even the cold loving phychrophile.There are five main habitats that thermophiles prefer. Although they are all considered geothermal features, they are significantly different. They are the solfatra, the hot spring, the fumarole, the geyser, and the black smoker.
 * The hot spring is a natural pool of water that s connected to a magma chamber. Magma is the name for lava that has ne[[image:black_smoker_crop_l.jpg align="right" caption="The Black Smoker"]]ver come to the surface.


 * The solfatra, is a hot spring, except it is void of water and vapor, instead, it releases sulfuric gases and is usualy filled withsulphuric acid.The Geyser would be a hot spring, except that there is a resistance in one of the chambers. The water would sink down, to the first chamber, the magma chamber. Then, after being heated up too much without being able to expand, it would breakthrough the resistance, a rock. The pressure would have been so great that some geysers exceed 150ft!


 * The fumarole is a crack in the ground that leads to a magma chamber, but it only releases gases.


 * Last but certainly not least, is the black smoker, shown below. It is a small, chimney-like structure located under the oceans. It is like a volcanic exhaust tube, that releases particles and debris from underground. These debris pile up to form the chimney structure and require the thermophile host not only to be a thermophile, but also a barophile, and sometimes also and acidophile.

**//How: //** Cell Wall - A rigid strucutre, encasing the cell membrane, usualy made from peptidoglycan, a protein-sugar, is called the cell wall. It anchors the flagella and the pilli, and prevents the cell from bursting. Ribosomes - Tiny factory-like organelles distributed throughout the cytoplasm, that makes proteins. Pili - Small hair-like projections that are found in most archaea, and are used primarily to attach themselves to surfaces, like rocks. Specialized Pili are used for conjugation, a process in which two cells exchange genetic information. Flagella - A long hair like projection found either in one end of the cell, both ends, or all over. It is used for transportation as if it were a propeller. Cytoplasm - A gel-like matrix that encases all organelles and the nucleoid. It is mainly made of the water and the cell's waste, nutrients enzyes and gases. Cytoplasmic membrane - Also called the cell membrane, the cytoplasmic membrane is encased by the cell wall, and regulates what comes in and what goes out of the cell. Nucleoid - A certain are of the cytoplasm where the DNA is found. It is similar to the nucleus of our cells, except it has no membrane surrounding it.

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