Cellular Structure Allows for Growth Under Extreme Pressure

Biological Strategy

Aspergillus

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Manage Compression

When a living system is under compression, there is a force pushing on it, like a chair with a person sitting on it. When evenly applied to all sides of a living system, compression results in decreased volume. When applied on two sides, it results in deformation, such as when pushing on two sides of a balloon. This deformation can be temporary or permanent. Because living systems must retain their most efficient form, they must ensure that any deformation is temporary. Managing compression also provides an opportunity to lessen the effects of other forces. Living systems have strategies to help prevent compression or recover from it, while maintaining function. For example, African elephant adults weigh from 4,700 to 6,048 kilograms. Because they must hold all of that weight on their four feet, the tissues of their feet have features that enable compression to absorb and distribute forces.

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Fungi

Kingdom Fungi: Mildews, molds, mushrooms, rusts, smuts, and yeasts

Once thought to be more closely related to plants, fungi have been found to contain chitin in their cell walls, indicating a closer evolutionary relationship to animals. Fungi are decomposers, using digestive enzymes to break down their surroundings, making them an essential part of ecosystems worldwide, as new soil is formed from rotting matter. Almost all fungi reproduce through spores (mushrooms, molds) or asexual budding (some yeast). There are estimated to be more than 2 million species, but only about 140,000 have been described. Fungi have great importance in culture, food, and medicine (including being the source of penicillin) worldwide.

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The hyphae of Aspergillus ustus mold can function and grow at more than 1000 m below sea level by adopting a micro-spherical shape.

Even though they are at home on dry land, Aspergillus ustus mold is also capable of living, growing, and reproducing under more than 1000 meters of water. Man-made machines have to be specially and painstakingly designed to function at those crushing depths, but Aspergillus ustus does so by adopting a micro-spheroid shape. Production and release of enzymes for breaking down their food functions well at these depths and cold temperatures as well.

Image: David Midgley /

A VERY small selection of the total fungi obtained from a 1 in 100 dilution of one gram of soil. The Aspergillus ustus is second from left on the bottom row.

Last Updated August 23, 2016

References

Journal article

Barotolerance of fungi isolated from deep-sea sediments of the Indian Ocean

Aquat. Microb. Ecol. | 04/09/2007 | C Raghukumar, S Raghukumar

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