Life at the limits: diversity, adaptation strategies and bioprospecting of microbes living in Arctic deep sea habitats

About this project

<p>Seabed hot vents are one of the most poorly understood habitats on Earth. They provide a broad range for diverse and extreme habitats with steep temperature and pH-gradients where diverse extremophilic microorganisms thrive. It is now well-established that the life in these extreme and inhospitable environments, is fueled by chemosynthesis, rather than photosynthesis, and that these habitats are our window into the first lifeforms to have emerged on our planet. Importantly, they also represent a biosphere significant for bioprospecting and biotechnology. Unfortunately, still, the vast majority of the microbial functional and biochemical diversity operating in these habitats is hidden in uncultured and yet-uncharacterized lineages. Therefore, starting at the unique biodiversity of the vents found under Norwegian waters at the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge, INDEPTH aims to decipher the metabolic traits and biochemical/enzymological content of this hidden reservoir. Through Polish and Norwegian complementarity of the research experience, technical expertise, knowledge and resources, and distribution, we will combine and leverage our expertise on extremophilic enzymes in Gdansk and Poznan, adaptations of extremophiles in Warsaw and ecology and bioprospecting of hot vents in Bergen. We will integrate and develop our competences in five work packages, focusing on bioinformatics-based metabolic predictions and phylogeny (WP1), adaptations (WP2), and structure/function analyses of enzymes (WP3, WP4, WP5). Fundamentally important results can be expected with substantial impact on our understanding of the ecology of microbial metabolism with the focus on carbon biogeochemical cycling, its evolution and the underlying molecular adaptations to life under the extreme conditions. The project workflow has the potential to unleash an enormous resource and improve the knowledge of enzymes operating under extreme conditions, similar to those that are of interest for industrial applications.</p>

Bilateral cooperation results

The project strengthened bilateral cooperation between beneficiary and donor state entities. Collaboration between project partners from Poland and Norway allowed knowledge transfer and provided significant educational opportunities to young scientists associated with participating institutions known for their scientific excellence in basic research. Through this project it was possible to master teamwork, share best practices, exchange information and know-how between research groups, thus contributing to European cohesion objectives by network activities. Interaction with peers by attending international conferences created a platform to exchange ideas to solve scientific problems. The project provided excellent opportunities in basic research for a number of Polish and Norwegian early-career researchers, M.Sc. students, Ph.D. students and postdoctoral fellows who were working together to achieve goals outlined in the project proposal. A number of them were working directly in the project through practical training in partners' laboratories. The partners applied for an EU Twinning grant (HORIZON WIDERA 2023) with the proposal VISIONARIES, which passed the evaluation threshold but did not receive funding.

Project partners

• University of Bergen Donor project partner· Norway
• Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences Project partner· Poland
• University of Warsaw Project partner· Poland