(Reference)

Outline of Research into Microorganisms under the Environments in the Deep Sea

1. Introduction
In October 1990, Japan Marine Science and Technology Center (JAMSTEC) embarked on the deep-sea environment program. With a deep-sea environment test system completed in August 1993, JAMSTEC started a project of research into microorganisms under the extremely hyperbaric environments, which any researchers had never reached.
This project had the 1st phase brought to the end in September 1998, with the 2nd phase started for a scheduled period of seven years from October the same year. The research into the frontier of deep-sea environments has been currently promoted in the field of leading and basic studies while enjoying a good reputation all over the world under a research scheme composed of (1) Deep-sea Environment Response Study Team, (2) Metabolism/Adaptable Function Study Team and (3) Genome Analysis Team.

2. Principal Research Achievements
(1) Discovered useful microorganisms, including a petroleum-cracking bacterium, in the seabed mud and others at a water depth of 1,945 meters in the Bay of Suruga.
(2) Discovered a new barophile bacterium in the seabed mud and others at a water depth of 6,500 meters in the Japan Deep., followed by reporting four species of barophiles.
(3) Discovered new species of hyperthermophilic oil bacteria in the seabed mud in the Okinawa Trough, Southern Mariana Trough, Izu-Ogasawara Trough, etc., followed by clarifying the diversity of microorganisms.
(4) Discovered an ultra-absolute barophile (new species), etc. in the seabed mud at a depth of approximately 11 thousand meters in the Challenger Abyss of the Mariana Deep, deepest sea area on the Globe.
(5) Succeeded in analyzing the genome of an alkalophilic bacterium, one of useful microorganisms.
(6) Proposed a new research field, "pressure physiology" (cell physiology under a high pressure).