Piezophilic Bacteria in the Deep-sea Environment

What are Piezophiles?:

Microbes that can grow better at high pressure than at atmospheric pressure.

-We isolated microbes from the Mariana Trench that cannot grow at less than 50 MPa pressure, and grow optimally at 80 MPa (800 fold atmospheric pressure).-

Sampling site from which piezophilic bacteria have been isolated in the DEEPSTAR project.

Growth profiles of the extremely piezophilic bacteria isolated from the Mariana Trench, Challenger Deep. These isolates cannot grow at less than 50 MPa pressure.