Extremophiles are microorganisms that survive and flourish in extreme
environments such as high salinity, temperature and pressure. Most
Archaea are extremophiles but not all extremophiles are Archaea. All
life can be classified as belonging to three domains - Archaea,
Bacteria and Eucarya, and some bacteria may also be classified as
extremophiles (for instance Thermatoga sp. are extremely
thermophilic).
In answer to your second question, many Archaea may live in
relatively "normal" environments - depends how you define normality.
There is as much variation between different species of Archea as
between different species of bacteria - some are aerobic or
facultative anaerobes.
Hope this helps,
Keith Jolley
On Thu, 16 Oct 1997 12:37:48 -0400, William Beller <wbeller at erols.com>
wrote:
>A naive question but I can't find the answer--What is the difference
>between Archaea and Extremophiles, or is there any? Is one a subset of
>the other, and which is which?
>>A second question--Must all Arachaea live in exotic environments, or can
>some live "normally" with some aberrations, for example, can Archaea
>metabolize in an oxygen atmosphere.
>>Thank you for any help you can give me. Bill Beller
--
Dr. Keith Jolley
Dept. of Molecular Microbiology
Southampton General Hospital, UK
Tel: 01703-798895 Fax: 01703-774316
