Highlights•Metagenomics permitted a better knowledge of the microbial diversity of
hypersaline habitats.•Cellular life in hypersaline habitats is dominated by prokaryotes …

Metagenomics has become an indispensable tool for studying the diversity and metabolic
potential of environmental microbes, whose bulk is as yet non-cultivable. Continual progress …

Life on Earth is limited by physical and chemical extremes that define the 'habitable
space'within which it operates. Aside from its requirement for liquid water, no definite limits …

Eukaryotic 18S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene primers that feature a wide coverage are critical
in detecting the composition of eukaryotic microscopic organisms in ecosystems. Here, we …

NaCl-saturated brines such as saltern crystalliser ponds, inland salt lakes, deep-sea brines
and liquids-of-deliquescence on halite are commonly regarded as a paradigm for the limit of …

Methanogenic enrichments from hypersaline lakes at moderate thermophilic conditions
have resulted in the cultivation of an unknown deep lineage of euryarchaeota related to the …

Lake Vostok, the 7th largest (by volume) and 4th deepest lake on Earth, is covered by more
than 3,700 m of ice, making it the largest subglacial lake known. The combination of cold …

Microbial life in extreme environments is attracting broad scientific interest. Knowledge
about it helps in defining the boundaries for life to exist, and organisms living under extreme …

The ecological and biotechnological services that microorganisms provide to the planet and
human society highlight the need to understand and preserve microbial diversity, which is …

Active deep-sea hydrothermal vents harbor abundant thermophilic and hyperthermophilic
microorganisms. However, microbial communities in inactive hydrothermal vents have not …