ARCHAEA AND THE NEW-AGE OF MICROORGANISMS

Archaea were, until recently, considered to be confined to specialized environments including those at high temperature, high salinity, extr emes of pH and ambients that permit methanogenesis. Recently developed molecular methods for studying microbial ecology, which do not necess itate cell culturing, have demonstrated their presence in a wide varie ty of temperate and cold environments including agricultural and fores t soils, fresh water lake sediments, marine picoplankton and deep-sea locations. These discoveries mark the beginning of a new era for inves tigating the Archaea and in particular their physiological and metabol ic properties and their biological roles in complex microbial populati ons.