Abstract
Extremophiles are organisms that can thrive under extreme environmental conditions. There are many types of extremophiles, which require different growth conditions and habitats to grow; among them are the halophilic and the halotolerant microbes. These microbes are reported to grow in habitats of high salinity regions including the sea, sediments, lakes, mines, plant and the soil. They need high carbon source and salt concentration to achieve maximum tolerable condition for their survival. High salinity survival and tolerance of these microbes are mechanized due to their osmotic and ionic stress, which are regulated through their genetic expression of enzymes, proteins, cell wall compositions and transporters. Thus, due to their robustness; the halophiles and halotolerant fungi showed high potential in health care; antimicrobial and anticancer activity, nanoparticle synthesis, enzyme production, genetics, bioremediation and other aspects. The aim of the current study was to explore the halophilic and halotolerant fungi, which are least explored for their habitats, growth requirements, and mechanism for salt resistance and tolerance. This will be followed by their biotechnological applications focusing on the biomedical industry, due to the emergence of the new multi-drug resistant pathogenic microbes.
Highlights
Extremophilic microbes survive under extreme ecosystems such as hot; cold, salty, sandy, highly acidic and alkaline habitats, due to their physiological and metabolic activities
Since the halophiles are known for their salt tolerance; exploration of salt mine and saltern has resulted in the discovery of diversified species including; A. salisburgensis isolated from a salt mine (Tafer et al, 2019), Wallemia ichthyophaga and Paranerita triangularis from solar saltern (Primožič et al, 2019) and Yarrowia lipolytica recovered from solar saltern saline (Alamillo et al, 2017)
The halophilic fungi as sources of bioactive compounds with antimicrobial activities are presented in Table (4)
Summary
Extremophilic microbes survive under extreme ecosystems such as hot; cold, salty, sandy, highly acidic and alkaline habitats, due to their physiological and metabolic activities. Because of their robustness, the extremophilic microbes have more attention as sources of novel bioactive compounds, and for understanding the basis of evolution of life (Chung et al, 2019). High salt tolerating groups are more diverse and all types of microorganisms such as bacteria; algae, fungi and protozoa have been studied from different environmental and geographical samples (Chamekh et al, 2019). The objective of the current study was to exploit the halophilic and halotolerant fungi; with a special focus on their physiological and biotechnological applications
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