• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.625-636
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• 2011

Cold-adapted bacteria survive in extremely cold temperature conditions and exhibit various mechanisms of adaptation to sustain their regular metabolic functions. These adaptations include several physiological and metabolic changes that assist growth in a myriad of ways. Successfully sensing of the drop in temperature in these bacteria is followed by responses which include changes in the outer cell membrane to changes in the central nucleoid of the cell. Their survival is facilitated through many ways such as synthesis of cryoprotectants, cold acclimation proteins, cold shock proteins, RNA degradosomes, Antifreeze proteins and ice nucleators. Agricultural productivity in cereals and legumes under low temperature is influenced by several cold adopted bacteria including Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter, Burkholderia, Exiguobacterium, Pantoea, Rahnella, Rhodococcus and Serratia. They use plant growth promotion mechanisms including production of IAA, HCN, and ACC deaminase, phosphate solublization and biocontrol against plant pathogens such as Alternaria, Fusarium, Sclerotium, Rhizoctonia and Pythium.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.263-271
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• 2007

The survival strategies of polar organisms at permanently or extremely cold temperatures and their application to cryobiology were reviewed here. In addition, ongoing studies on psychrophiles also were described. Psychrophiles are extremophiles that can grow and reproduce in cold temperatures, typically at -10 to $20^{\circ}C$. These organisms developed various mechanisms of adaptation to extremely cold environments. Polar organisms cope with these extreme physicochemical conditions using strategies such as avoidance, protection and partnership with other organisms. Understanding on the strategies adopted by polar organisms may provide insight on the physiological process that cells can go through during freezing. Cryopreservation may be able to take advantage of the findings described above. Currently, genomes of many cold-loving organisms have been sequenced and comparative genomics has revealed, at a molecular level, the characteristics of these organisms. The investigation of microorganisms on the polar glaciers may expand our understanding on the origin of life on Earth and other planets.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.32 no.7
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• pp.2405-2409
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• 2011

The psychrophilic bacteria Psychromonas arctica survives at subzero temperatures by having adapted several protective mechanisms against freezing and oxidative stresses. Many reactive oxygen species are likely generated in P. arctica as a result of reduced metabolic turnover rates. A previous study identified the pasod gene for superoxide dismutase from P. arctica using a series of PCR amplifications. Here, upon cloning into a His-tag fused plasmid, the sod gene from P. arctica (pasod) was successfully expressed by IPTG induction. His-tagged PaSOD was subsequently purified by $Ni^{2+}$-NTA affinity chromatography. The purified PaSOD exhibited a higher SOD activity than that of Escherichia coli (EcSOD) at all temperatures. The difference in activity between PaSOD and EcSOD becomes even more significant at 4$^{\circ}C$, indicating that PaSOD plays a functional role in the cold adaptation of P. arctica in the Arctic.