About 30 years ago scientists thought that life could only exist in a very limited number of environments. However, many interesting bacteria have been found nearly everywhere we look. Bacteria have been found growing at temperatures of up to 113 degrees Celsius (235 degrees Fahrenheit). They have been discovered three kilometers (almost two miles) underground. Still other organisms have been found growing in the bubbling hot pools at Yellowstone National Park. Scientists have also found bacteria in Arctic ice. Bacteria have been found that can grow in very high salt and at low and high pH levels (low pH = acidic environments; high pH = alkaline environments). These organisms' unique abilities are now beginning to be utilized to help us in our everyday lives.
Businesses are starting to utilize these unusual organisms' abilities. One example is the use of a protein from Thermus aquaticus. This bacteria was isolated from a hot boiling pool in Yellowstone National Park. It lives and grows quite well in these hot pools. To survive, Thermus aquaticus produces enzymes that work even at high temperatures. An enzyme is a protein that helps a chemical reaction along. High temperatures are lethal to most organisms because the high temperature destroys the enzymes needed for life. One example of a protein used everyday in research and hospital laboratories is Thermus aquaticus' Taq polymerase. Taq polymerase helps the bacteria produce its DNA. It does this by adding individual nucleotides (these are what make up DNA) to the DNA chain in an order determined by an already existing DNA chain. Taq polymerase can withstand temperatures up to 95 degree Celsius (203 degrees fahrenheit). This enzyme is used in a procedure called the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). PCR is used to detect very small numbers of organisms in a sample by making literally thousands of copies of the bacterial DNA. PCR is sensitive enough to detect one single Mycobacterium tuberculosis organism in a milliliter of sputum. Sputum is what the doctor asks you to spit up from your lungs if you have tuberculosis. To get all these DNA copies Taq polymerase must survive repeated incubations at 95 degrees Celsius (203 degrees fahrenheit).
Another business venture by a company called Genencor International labs in Palo Alto, California, involves making our clothes whiter and cleaner. An enzyme, cellulase 103, obtained from a bacteria that lives in soda lakes around the world can gently remove the microscope fuzz from our clothing that traps dirt. This treatment is much gentler than the current additives we use to clean our clothes and may help our clothes last longer. A soda lake is a body of water that
Go To Page: 1 2
