A GROUP of unusual microorganisms, best known for their ability to exist in extreme conditions, is far more widespread than biologists once thought. Archaebacteria, far from being an evolutionary curiosity; may play an important role in marine and global ecology.
Edward DeLong of the University of California at Santa Barbara, has found the organisms in the cold waters along the Antarctic coast, where they provide up to 30 per cent of the single-celled marine biomass. He has also found them in significant numbers at the cold depths below 100 metres in temperate oceans (Nature, vol 371, p 695).
Archaebacteria, now generally classified within the taxon Archaea, lack nuclei, which puts them among the prokaryotes. Biologists initially assumed they were closely related to the other prokaryotes - typical bacteria and the blue-green algae. The first archaebacteria recognised by scientists had unusual metabolisms. Some generated methane, while others lived in deep-sea vents ...
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