Metagenomics of Hyperthermophilic Environments: Biodiversity and Biotechnology

Abstract The field of thermophilic microbiology was born in the late 1970s with the pioneering work of Brock (Thermophiles biodiversity, ecology, and evolution. Springer, Boston, pp. 1-9, 2001) and dramatically expanded through the'80s with the isolation of hyperthermophiles by Stetter (FEMS Microbiol Rev 18: 149-158, 1996). The development of SSU rRNA phylogenetics revealed the complexity and diversity of prokaryotic phylotypes on biotopes widely differing in extreme conditions (eg spanning gradients of pH between 0 ...