Identification of a novel alkaliphilic esterase active at low temperatures by screening a metagenomic library from Antarctic desert soil
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Date
2009
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Abstract
The cold deserts of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, South Victoria Land, Eastern Antarctica, are widely acknowledged as
having the harshest soil environments on Earth (6, 8, 26).
Despite the apparent hostility of the environment, we and
others have reported both unexpectedly high biomass (9) and
phylogenetic diversity (1, 19, 24, 29) in Antarctic soils. The
presence of numerous novel taxa suggests that these soils
might prove to be valuable sources of genetic material for
mining novel industrial enzymes active at low temperatures
(9, 23).
Esterases (EC 3.1.1.1) and lipases (EC 3.1.1.3) catalyze the
hydrolysis and synthesis of ester compounds. Their applications in industry cover a broad spectrum, including as detergent additives, in food processing, in environmental bioremediation, and in biomass and plant waste degradation for the
production of useful organocompounds (3, 16).
Description
Keywords
Biotechnology, Climate change, Diversity, Agriculture, Antarctic desert
Citation
Heath, C. et al. (2009). Identification of a novel alkaliphilic esterase active at low temperatures by screening a metagenomic library from Antarctic desert soil, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 75 (13), 4657-4659. 10.1128/AEM.02597-08