Species Capable of Growth at Pressures Ranging Over 5 Orders of Magnitude, from the Surface of Mars (10 Pa) to Deep Oceans (10 Pa) in the Solar System.

Several permanently cold solar system bodies are being investigated with regard to their potential habitability, including Mars and icy moons. In such locations, microbial life would have to cope with low temperatures and both high and low pressures, ranging from ∼10 to 10 Pa on the surface of Mars to upward of ∼10-10 Pa in the subsurface oceans of icy moons. The bacterial genus consists of species that were previously shown to be capable of growth in the absence of oxygen at low temperatures and at either low pressure or high pressure, but to date the entire pressure range of the genus has not been explored.

Distinctive gene and protein characteristics of extremely piezophilic Colwellia.

Background: The deep ocean is characterized by low temperatures, high hydrostatic pressures, and low concentrations of organic matter. While these conditions likely select for distinct genomic characteristics within prokaryotes, the attributes facilitating adaptation to the deep ocean are relatively unexplored. In this study, we compared the genomes of seven strains within the genus Colwellia, including some of the most piezophilic microbes known, to identify genomic features that enable life in the deep sea.