Genetics and Genomics of Psychrophilic and Psychrotolerant Microorganisms

Dear Colleagues,

Permanently cold environments cover around 75% of the Earth’s surface, including the Arctic and Antarctic regions as well as most oceans and high mountains. While such habitats are challenging to most life forms, they are inhabited by various microorganisms, especially bacteria and archaea, most of which are uniquely adapted to growth at low temperatures. These microorganisms can be classified into two groups based on their temperature tolerance: (i) psychrophiles, which can grow at temperatures not exceeding ~20 °C, and (ii) psychrotolerants, which tolerate temperatures between 0 and ~30 °C. The diversity and biology of psychrophiles and psychrotolerants have been extensively studied in recent years, and numerous strains have been subjected to genomic investigations. However, there are still considerable gaps in our knowledge of this ecological group.

This Special Issue of Genes aims to present the results of genetic and genomic analyses of cold-active bacteria and archaea as well as works utilizing transcriptomic, proteomic, or metabolomic analyses. We are especially interested in investigations of various mechanisms enabling the adaptation of cold-active microorganisms to extreme temperature conditions, i.e., permanent cold, as well as other stressors like nutrient deficiency, presence of toxicants, and high salinity. Comparative genomics works providing considerable new knowledge about the diversity of specific taxa of cold-active microorganisms will also be included. Since rapid adaptation of prokaryotic cells to changing environmental conditions may be necessary for survival in permanently cold environments, and the main drivers of such “short-term evolution” are various mobile genetic elements (MGEs), manuscripts describing them and overall horizontal gene transfer in cold regions are also welcome; this includes papers detailing novel host–virus systems. Finally, as cold-active microorganisms are highly desired from a biotechnological point of view, papers describing applications of psychrotolerants or psychrophiles as microbial cell factories, their usage in environmental biotechnologies and industry, as well as the development of novel tools for genetic manipulations in this group of microorganisms are also of interest.

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Genes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• biotechnology
• cold adaptation
• genetic manipulations
• genomics
• host-virus system
• mobile genetic elements
• phage
• plasmid
• psychrophile
• psychrotolerant
• stress response
• microbiology