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Wiley, Environmental Microbiology, 2(17), p. 332-345, 2014

DOI: 10.1111/1462-2920.12660

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Pressure adaptation is linked to thermal adaptation in salt-saturated marine habitats: Enzyme adaptation to poly-extremes

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This paper is available in a repository.

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Abstract

The present study provides a deeper view of protein functionality as a function of temperature, salt and pressure in deep-sea habitats. A set of 8 different enzymes from five distinct deep-sea (3,040-4,908 m depth), moderately warm (14.0-16.5°C) biotopes, characterised by a wide range of salinities (39-348 practical salinity units), were investigated for this purpose. An enzyme from a 'superficial' marine hydrothermal habitat (65°C) was isolated and characterised for comparative purposes. We report here the first experimental evidence suggesting that in salt-saturated deep-sea habitats, the adaptation to high pressure is linked to high thermal resistance (p value = 0.0036). Salinity might, therefore, increase the temperature window for enzyme activity, and possibly microbial growth, in deep-sea habitats. As an example, Lake Medee, the largest hypersaline deep-sea anoxic lake of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, where the water temperature is never higher than 16°C, was shown to contain halopiezophilic-like enzymes that are most active at 70°C and with denaturing temperatures of 71.4°C. The determination of the crystal structures of 5 proteins revealed unknown molecular mechanisms involved in protein adaptation to poly-extremes as well as distinct active site architectures and substrate preferences relative to other structurally characterised enzymes.