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Halobacterium Litoreum
''Halobacterium'' (common abbreviation ''Hbt.'') is a genus in the family Halobacteriaceae. The genus ''Halobacterium'' ("salt" or "ocean bacterium") consists of several species of Archaea with an aerobic metabolism which requires an environment with a high concentration of salt; many of their proteins will not function in low-salt environments. They grow on amino acids in their aerobic conditions. Their cell walls are also quite different from those of bacteria, as ordinary lipoprotein membranes fail in high salt concentrations. In shape, they may be either rods or cocci, and in color, either red or purple. They reproduce using binary fission (by constriction), and are motile. ''Halobacterium'' grows best in a 42 °C environment. The genome of an unspecified ''Halobacterium'' species, sequenced by Shiladitya DasSarma, comprises 2,571,010 bp (base pairs) of DNA compiled into three circular strands: one large chromosome with 2,014,239 bp, and two smaller ones with 191,346 and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Halobacteria
Haloarchaea (halophilic archaea, halophilic archaebacteria, halobacteria) are a class of the Euryarchaeota, found in water saturated or nearly saturated with salt. Halobacteria are now recognized as archaea rather than bacteria and are one of the largest groups. The name 'halobacteria' was assigned to this group of organisms before the existence of the domain Archaea was realized, and while valid according to taxonomic rules, should be updated. Halophilic archaea are generally referred to as haloarchaea to distinguish them from halophilic bacteria. These microorganisms are among the halophile organisms, that they require high salt concentrations to grow, with most species requiring more than 2.0M NaCl for growth and survival. They are a distinct evolutionary branch of the Archaea distinguished by the possession of ether-linked lipids and the absence of murein in their cell walls. Haloarchaea can grow aerobically or anaerobically. Parts of the membranes of haloarchaea are purpl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Proteins
Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, responding to stimuli, providing structure to cells and organisms, and transporting molecules from one location to another. Proteins differ from one another primarily in their sequence of amino acids, which is dictated by the nucleotide sequence of their genes, and which usually results in protein folding into a specific 3D structure that determines its activity. A linear chain of amino acid residues is called a polypeptide. A protein contains at least one long polypeptide. Short polypeptides, containing less than 20–30 residues, are rarely considered to be proteins and are commonly called peptides. The individual amino acid residues are bonded together by peptide bonds and adjacent amino acid residues. The sequence of amino acid residues ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bacteriorhodopsin
Bacteriorhodopsin is a protein used by Archaea, most notably by haloarchaea, a class of the Euryarchaeota. It acts as a proton pump; that is, it captures light energy and uses it to move protons across the membrane out of the cell. The resulting proton gradient is subsequently converted into chemical energy. Function Bacteriorhodopsin is a light-driven H+ ion transporter found in some haloarchaea, most notably '' Halobacterium salinarum'' (formerly known as syn. ''H. halobium''). The proton-motive force generated by the protein is used by ATP synthase to generate adenosine triphosphate (ATP). By expressing bacteriorhodopsin, the archaea cells are able to synthesise ATP in the absence of a carbon source. Structure Bacteriorhodopsin is a 27 kDa integral membrane protein usually found in two-dimensional crystalline patches known as "purple membrane", which can occupy almost 50% of the surface area of the archaeal cell. The repeating element of the hexagonal lattice is compos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lake Magadi
Lake Magadi is the southernmost lake in the Kenyan Rift Valley, lying in a catchment of faulted volcanic rocks, north of Tanzania's Lake Natron. During the dry season, it is 80% covered by soda and is well known for its wading birds, including flamingos. Lake Magadi is a saline, alkaline lake, approximately 100 square kilometers in size, that lies in an endorheic basin formed by a graben. The lake is an example of a "saline pan". The lake water, which is a dense sodium carbonate brine, precipitates vast quantities of the mineral trona (sodium sesquicarbonate). In places, the salt is up to 40 m thick. The lake is recharged mainly by saline hot springs (temperatures up to 86 °C) that discharge into alkaline "lagoons" around the lake margins, there being little surface runoff in this arid region. Most hot springs lie along the northwestern and southern shorelines of the lake. During the rainy season, a thin (less than 1 m) layer of brine covers much of the saline pan, but this ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dead Sea
The Dead Sea ( he, יַם הַמֶּלַח, ''Yam hamMelaḥ''; ar, اَلْبَحْرُ الْمَيْتُ, ''Āl-Baḥrū l-Maytū''), also known by other names, is a salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank to the west. It lies in the Jordan Rift Valley, and its main tributary is the Jordan River. As of 2019, the lake's surface is below sea level, making its shores the lowest land-based elevation on Earth. It is deep, the deepest hypersaline lake in the world. With a salinity of 342 g/kg, or 34.2% (in 2011), it is one of the world's saltiest bodies of water – 9.6 times as salty as the ocean – and has a density of 1.24 kg/litre, which makes swimming similar to floating. This salinity makes for a harsh environment in which plants and animals cannot flourish, hence its name. The Dead Sea's main, northern basin is long and wide at its widest point. The Dead Sea has attracted visitors from around the Mediterranean Basin for th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Salt Lake
The Great Salt Lake is the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere and the eighth-largest terminal lake in the world. It lies in the northern part of the U.S. state of Utah and has a substantial impact upon the local climate, particularly through lake-effect snow. It is a remnant of Lake Bonneville, a prehistoric body of water that covered much of western Utah. The area of the lake can fluctuate substantially due to its low average depth of . In the 1980s, it reached a historic high of , and the West Desert Pumping Project was established to mitigate flooding by pumping water from the lake into the nearby desert. In 2021, after years of sustained drought and increased water diversion upstream of the lake, it fell to its lowest recorded area at 950 square miles (2,460 km²), falling below the previous low set in 1963. Continued shrinkage could turn the lake into a bowl of toxic dust, poisoning the air around Salt Lake City. The lake's three major tributaries, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shiladitya DasSarma
Shiladitya DasSarma (born November 11, 1957) is a molecular biologist well-known for contributions to the biology of halophilic and extremophilic microorganisms. He is a Professor in the University of Maryland Baltimore. He earned a PhD degree in Biochemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a BS degree in Chemistry from Indiana University Bloomington. Prior to taking a faculty position, he conducted research at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and Pasteur Institute, Paris. DasSarma has served on the faculty of the University of Massachusetts Amherst (1986-2001), University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute (2001-2010), and University of Maryland School of MedicineInstitute of Marine and Environmental Technology(2010–present). He is a researcher and teacher of molecular genetics, genomics, and bioinformatics and mentor of undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students, and junior faculty. He is widely known to have been instrumenta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Motile
Motility is the ability of an organism to move independently, using metabolic energy. Definitions Motility, the ability of an organism to move independently, using metabolic energy, can be contrasted with sessility, the state of organisms that do not possess a means of self-locomotion and are normally immobile. Motility differs from mobility, the ability of an object to be moved. The term vagility encompasses both motility and mobility; sessile organisms including plants and fungi often have vagile parts such as fruits, seeds, or spores which may be dispersed by other agents such as wind, water, or other organisms. Motility is genetically determined, but may be affected by environmental factors such as toxins. The nervous system and musculoskeletal system provide the majority of mammalian motility. In addition to animal locomotion, most animals are motile, though some are vagile, described as having passive locomotion. Many bacteria and other microorganisms, and multicellu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Binary Fission
Binary may refer to: Science and technology Mathematics * Binary number, a representation of numbers using only two digits (0 and 1) * Binary function, a function that takes two arguments * Binary operation, a mathematical operation that takes two arguments * Binary relation, a relation involving two elements * Binary-coded decimal, a method for encoding for decimal digits in binary sequences * Finger binary, a system for counting in binary numbers on the fingers of human hands Computing * Binary code, the digital representation of text and data * Bit, or binary digit, the basic unit of information in computers * Binary file, composed of something other than human-readable text ** Executable, a type of binary file that contains machine code for the computer to execute * Binary tree, a computer tree data structure in which each node has at most two children Astronomy * Binary star, a star system with two stars in it * Binary planet, two planetary bodies of comparable ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cocci
A coccus (plural cocci) is any bacterium or archaeon that has a spherical, ovoid, or generally round shape. Bacteria are categorized based on their shapes into three classes: cocci (spherical-shaped), bacillus (rod-shaped) and spiral ( of which there are two types: spirillum and spirochete). Coccus refers to the shape of the bacteria, and can contain multiple genera, such as staphylococci or streptococci. Cocci can grow in pairs, chains, or clusters, depending on their orientation and attachment during cell division. In contrast to many bacilli-shaped bacteria, most cocci bacteria do not have flagella and are non-motile. Cocci is an English loanword of a modern or neo-Latin noun, which in turn stems from the Greek masculine noun () meaning 'berry'. Structure The cell wall structure for cocci may vary between gram-positive (thick peptidoglycan layers) and gram-negative (thin peptidoglycan layers). While living in their host organism, cocci can be pathogenic (e.g., streptoco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Biological Membrane
A biological membrane, biomembrane or cell membrane is a selectively permeable membrane that separates the interior of a cell from the external environment or creates intracellular compartments by serving as a boundary between one part of the cell and another. Biological membranes, in the form of eukaryotic cell membranes, consist of a phospholipid bilayer with embedded, integral and peripheral proteins used in communication and transportation of chemicals and ions. The bulk of lipids in a cell membrane provides a fluid matrix for proteins to rotate and laterally diffuse for physiological functioning. Proteins are adapted to high membrane fluidity environment of the lipid bilayer with the presence of an annular lipid shell, consisting of lipid molecules bound tightly to the surface of integral membrane proteins. The cell membranes are different from the isolating tissues formed by layers of cells, such as mucous membranes, basement membranes, and serous membranes. Composition ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lipoprotein
A lipoprotein is a biochemical assembly whose primary function is to transport hydrophobic lipid (also known as fat) molecules in water, as in blood plasma or other extracellular fluids. They consist of a triglyceride and cholesterol center, surrounded by a phospholipid outer shell, with the hydrophilic portions oriented outward toward the surrounding water and lipophilic portions oriented inward toward the lipid center. A special kind of protein, called apolipoprotein, is embedded in the outer shell, both stabilising the complex and giving it a functional identity that determines its role. Many enzymes, transporters, structural proteins, antigens, adhesins, and toxins are lipoproteins. Examples include plasma lipoprotein particles ( HDL, LDL, IDL, VLDL and chylomicrons). Subgroups of these plasma particles are primary drivers or modulators of atherosclerosis. Scope Transmembrane lipoproteins Some transmembrane proteolipids, especially those found in bacteria, are referred ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
