HEAT- SEEKING MICROBES
Heated by a subterranean supervolcano, the bubbling hot springs of Yellowstone can exceed 90°C, too hot for ordinary organisms.
In 1969, while studying the extremophile microbes that do live in Yellowstone’s hotsprings – and give them their colour – Thomas D. Brock and Hudson Freeze of Indiana University discovered Thermus aquaticus. This microbe went on to underpin almost every genetics discovery ever made.
T. aquaticus contains a heat-tolerant Dna-polymerising enzyme that, once isolated, became a cornerstone of the polymerase chain reaction. PCR is how tiny DNA samples are amplified for analysis – crucial for everything from crime scene analysis to genome reading.
It’s just one of the uses scientists have already, or hope soon, to develop by studying extreme organisms.