Preface
The notion that on earth there is life where there is liquid water seems holding
true. The biosphere has many extreme environments which were once thought free
of life. However, studies indicated that even these extreme sites that are bizarre to
humans are found inhabited by richly diverse life forms known as extremophiles.
Alkaliphiles are a class of extremophiles that thrive in alkaline habitats. To thrive
in the extremely alkaline habitats, alkaliphiles evolved unique structural and
functional adaptive features. These features are of great importance to biotechnology. High pH conditions are part of several industrial and environmental processes. Thus, alkaliphiles and their products have got several applications such as
in detergent, paper and pulp, textile, and leather industries. These applications and
human curiosity of understanding nature led to isolation and studies of a wide
range of alkaliphiles from various alkaline environments. In recent years, these
studies are contributing to expand the application horizon of alkaliphiles to new
territories and technologies. This volume on “Alkaliphiles in Biotechnology” was
thus intended to bring attention to these fascinating extremophiles and highlight
their immense biotechnological potential.
Alkaline habitats are widely distributed in the biosphere. However, the genesis
and actual chemical composition of these environments are quite different, a factor
which influences the diversity of the community inhabiting the alkaline environments. This variation also affects the success of isolating alkaliphiles from different
habitats. Moreover, like other extremophiles, isolation of alkaliphiles is not efficient
and only a very tiny fraction of alkaliphiles community are culturable. However,
there is some progress made on the isolation and cultivation of this group of
organisms. These advances in isolation and cultivation of alkaliphiles are included
in this volume.
The emergence of molecular techniques such as cloning and heterologous expression, metagenomics, system biology, metabolic engineering, and systems metabolic
engineering which integrates genetic engineering, synthetic biology, and systems
biology approaches has started to contribute to the advancement of biotechnology.
v
The notion that on earth there is life where there is liquid water seems holding
true. The biosphere has many extreme environments which were once thought free
of life. However, studies indicated that even these extreme sites that are bizarre to
humans are found inhabited by richly diverse life forms known as extremophiles.
Alkaliphiles are a class of extremophiles that thrive in alkaline habitats. To thrive
in the extremely alkaline habitats, alkaliphiles evolved unique structural and
functional adaptive features. These features are of great importance to biotechnology. High pH conditions are part of several industrial and environmental processes. Thus, alkaliphiles and their products have got several applications such as
in detergent, paper and pulp, textile, and leather industries. These applications and
human curiosity of understanding nature led to isolation and studies of a wide
range of alkaliphiles from various alkaline environments. In recent years, these
studies are contributing to expand the application horizon of alkaliphiles to new
territories and technologies. This volume on “Alkaliphiles in Biotechnology” was
thus intended to bring attention to these fascinating extremophiles and highlight
their immense biotechnological potential.
Alkaline habitats are widely distributed in the biosphere. However, the genesis
and actual chemical composition of these environments are quite different, a factor
which influences the diversity of the community inhabiting the alkaline environments. This variation also affects the success of isolating alkaliphiles from different
habitats. Moreover, like other extremophiles, isolation of alkaliphiles is not efficient
and only a very tiny fraction of alkaliphiles community are culturable. However,
there is some progress made on the isolation and cultivation of this group of
organisms. These advances in isolation and cultivation of alkaliphiles are included
in this volume.
The emergence of molecular techniques such as cloning and heterologous expression, metagenomics, system biology, metabolic engineering, and systems metabolic
engineering which integrates genetic engineering, synthetic biology, and systems
biology approaches has started to contribute to the advancement of biotechnology.
v