Isolating and characterizing deep-sea marine microorganisms

Abstract

We have isolated several microorganisms that are adapted to living in the extremes of the deep-sea environment. They include barophilic bacteria, which are able to grow at high hydrostatic pressure, but that are unable to grow at atmospheric pressure, and organic-solvent-tolerant bacteria, which are able to grow in the presence of toxic organic solvents such as toluene or benzene. In this review, we describe how to isolate such extremophiles, and we outline the characteristics of several strains that have been recovered from the deep-sea environment.