You and your friend are on vacation at Yellowstone Park. The plaque in front of a sulfur hot spring reads: "This sulfur spring is 80°C, has a pH of 2, and contains large amounts of sulfur which is oxidized by Sulfolobus species of archaea." Your friend is excited. "Boy, if those microbes are that tough they should be easy to grow in the lab. I think I'll work with those for my summer project." What do you think?

Question

Biology

Julianne Mercado

13 November, 00:34

You and your friend are on vacation at Yellowstone Park. The plaque in front of a sulfur hot spring reads: "This sulfur spring is 80°C, has a pH of 2, and contains large amounts of sulfur which is oxidized by Sulfolobus species of archaea." Your friend is excited. "Boy, if those microbes are that tough they should be easy to grow in the lab. I think I'll work with those for my summer project." What do you think?

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Answers (1)

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Yair Rocha · Answer 1

Archaebacteria are the prokaryotic organism which is adapted to grow in the extreme condition of the Earth. Their metabolism is evolved to utilize the conditions present in the extreme conditions therefore these are also known as the extremophiles.

In the given question, the bacteria are adapted to growing the high temperature that is 80 degree Celsius with a pH of 2.

If the students will try to grow them in the lab conditions, then these extremophiles will not grow as the provided conditions in the lab will not be suitable for their growth and it will be very difficult for them to shift their metabolism to grow in the lab conditions.