Contents -- Contributors -- Foreword -- Preface -- I. Introduction -- 1. Extremophiles and the Origin of Life -- II. Thermophiles -- 2. Thermal Environments and Biodiversity -- 3. Functional Genomics in Thermophilic Microorganisms -- 4. How Nucleic Acids Cope with High Temperature -- 5. How Thermophiles Cope with Thermolabile Metabolites -- 6. Temperature-Dependent Molecular Adaptation Features in Proteins -- 7. The Physiological Role, Biosynthesis, and Mode of Action of Compatible Solutes from (Hyper)Thermophiles -- 8. Membrane Adaptations of (Hyper)Thermophiles to High Temperatures -- III. Psychrophiles -- 9. Ecology and Biodiversity of Cold-Adapted Microorganisms -- 10. Life in Ice Formations at Very Cold Temperatures -- 11. Lake Vostok and Subglacial Lakes of Antarctica: Do They Host Life? -- 12. Psychrophiles: Membrane Adaptations -- 13. Cold-Adapted Enzymes -- 14. The Cold-Shock Response -- 15. Perception and Transduction of Low Temperature in Bacteria -- 16. An Interplay between Metabolic and Physicochemical Constraints: Lessons from the Psychrophilic Prokaryote Genomes -- IV. Halophiles -- 17. Biodiversity in Highly Saline Environments -- 18. Response to Osmotic Stress in a Haloarchaeal Genome: a Role for General Stress Proteins and Global Regulatory Mechanisms -- 19. Molecular Adaptation to High Salt -- V. Acidophiles -- 20. Physiology and Ecology of Acidophilic Microorganisms -- 21. Acidophiles: Mechanisms To Tolerate Metal and Acid Toxicity -- 22. Genomics of Acidophiles -- VI. Alkaliphiles -- 23. Environmental and Taxonomic Biodiversities of Gram-Positive Alkaliphiles -- 24. Bioenergetic Adaptations That Support Alkaliphily -- VII. Piezophiles -- 25. Microbial Adaptation to High Pressure -- VIII. Exobiology -- 26. Astrobiology and the Search for Life in the Universe -- IX. Biotechnology.

27. Extremophiles, a Unique Resource of Biocatalysts for Industrial Biotechnology -- X. Lessons from Extremophiles -- 28. Lessons from Extremophiles: Early Evolution and Border Conditions of Life -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- X.