Extraordinary Extremophile

http://www.astrobiology.com/extreme.html - General Reference with links

Scavenger Hunt

This is a computer laboratory.  You need to show your research ability.  Are you a Cell Sleuth.  Can your find the answers to these questions about a group of organisms that live under EXTREME CONDITIONS????

Goal - Each Student should produce a Unique Document on Extremophiles

Directions -Open a Word Document to use for your submission as your report.

Put your name on the top with the title.  My Extraordinary Extremophiles.

• Use Google to search for information.  Use Google images to search for pictures.  To search specifically you may need to refine your search.

• For each answer or topic provide the Internet resource where you found the answer

•  Get Ready, Get Set GOOOOOOOOO

1, Preliminary( Just to get you started)

• Find a diagram of a prokaryote cell.  There are many diagrams available.  Select one that has the cellular structure labeled. 

• Copy and paste the picture into your document.

Define extremophile  

1. What is a halophile?  Where are these found?  What are their characteristics? Check out these links

http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/H/halophile.html

http://www.uib.no/ums/magazine/updates/Halophilemi/halophilemi.htm

http://www.uib.no/ums/magazine/updates/Halophilemi/halophilemi.htm

http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0212089/halo.htm

2.What is a psychrophile ?  Name an example.  How do they survive these conditions

  http://psychrophile.iqnaut.net/

http://www.genex2.dri.edu/research/psychro-gen.pdf - List of organisms that you can use to research specifics

3.What is a hyperthermophile? What is the difference between a thermophile and a hyperthermophile?

http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/H/hyperthermo.html

http://www.nps.gov/yell/nature/thermophiles/biopro.html - Yellowstone and Thermophiles

http://www.sidwell.edu/us/science/vlb5/Labs/Classification_Lab/Archaea/Hyperthermophiles/

4.What is a methanogen?  Find a picture?

http://www.sidwell.edu/us/science/vlb5/Labs/Classification_Lab/Archaea/Methanogens/

http://biology.kenyon.edu/Microbial_Biorealm/archaea/methanogens/methanogens.html

http://commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/dlc-me/zoo/zoutline.html

5.Find information of Thermotoga – What are its characteristics?  Can you find its picture?

6.Have bacteria been found deep within the earth?  Check this article

http://wvlc.uwaterloo.ca/biology447/modules/module6/Scientific_American_Article_Microbes.htm

7.What unusual bacteria can be found at Yellowstone Park in Wyoming? 

8.What is a sulfur bacteria?  Where could you find these ?

9.What are the oldest cell fossils?  Where have these been found?

10.  What is an acidophile?  What is an alkalophile?  Give examples of each.  What pH do they find appealing?  Why is this unusual?

11.  What is the hydrogen black smoker?  Where are these found? How does this relate to the origin of life?

  12.  Thanks for helping us understand the tree of life. Paste pictures of the microbe hunters  Carl Woese and Karl Stetter at the end of your document.

  13.  Extra credit - Find the Thermotoga maritima and the Thermotoga Genome

Bioinformatics of Archaea

Search NCBI

Use pull down menu on left

Choose Genome

Search microbes

Left Border

Microbial Genomes

Genomes

This opens a new page

Find Thermatoge - Read line to the right

Clcik on TIGR - you should see the gene map of Thermatoga maritima

Find the structure of a Thermotoga Protein

 Google - pdb

Select - PDB - Search Lite

Page will open

Deselect match exact word( Get rid of the check mark)

Full Search should be checked

Search for Thermotoga

Select second choice.  Select explore.  Far right hand side

Left side of page.  Click on view structure

Click on Ribbons( First image)

Picture should enlarge.

Copy and paste