Describe the environmental conditions that extremophiles are able to live in. Describe the environmental conditions that extremophiles are able to live in. Extremophiles were microbes that could only live in conditions that prevailed early in Earth's history when environments had high temperatures and pressure and lacked oxygen. Extremophiles includes those microbes that thrive in very high-salt, high-temperatures, low-temperature, high-pressure, low-pH, or high-pH harsh conditions. Extremophiles can only survive in habitats where there are extreme changes in close proximity, such as hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the ocean, where water as hot as 300°C emerges and mixes with 4°C seawater. Extremophiles are able to tolerate extreme conditions found in space such as a near vacuum and temperatures in excess of 300°C or several hundred degrees below 0°C.

Extremophiles includes those microbes that thrive in very high-salt, high-temperatures, low-temperature, high-pressure, low-pH, or high-pH harsh conditions.

Explanation:

Extremophilic organisms are life forms that can grow in extreme environmental conditions, such as the above mentioned. In general, extremophiles are prokaryotic organisms (i.e., archaea and bacteria), although there are some eukaryotic species that are considered extremophilic organisms. Extremophiles are classified into two main types: 1-microorganisms that live in extreme conditions and 2-microorganisms that have the ability to tolerate extreme environmental conditions. Extremophiles are extremely important both in basic and applied research. An example of this is the thermostable Taq DNA polymerase obtained from the bacterium Thermus aquaticus (an extremophile that lives in areas of high temperature and pressure), which is essential to carry out the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR).