Affiliation:
1. Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, Seattle, WA 98109, USA
2. Centro de Investigación del Medio Ambiente (CENIMA), Universidad Arturo Prat, 1110939 Iquique, Chile
Abstract
The Atacama Desert in Chile is well known for being the driest and oldest desert on Earth. For these same reasons, it is also considered a good analog model of the planet Mars. Only a few decades ago, it was thought that this was a sterile place, but in the past years fascinating adaptations have been reported in the members of the three domains of life: low water availability, high UV radiation, high salinity, and other environmental stresses. However, the biotechnological applications derived from the basic understanding and characterization of these species, with the notable exception of copper bioleaching, are still in its infancy, thus offering an immense potential for future development.
Subject
General Immunology and Microbiology,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology,General Medicine
Cited by
19 articles.
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