ABSTRACT
Geomicrobiology is a sub-discipline arising from interdisciplinary studies of microbiology, geology, chemistry and other disciplines. It is the study of the interactions between microorganisms and their inorganic environments in the Geosphere (Fang and Bazylinski 2008). The rapid development and growth of geomicrobiology can partially be attributed to studies and discoveries in the last several decades of extremophiles present in many different environments that play key roles in biogeochemical cycles which occur in these environments. The rapidlydeveloping studies of extremophiles and geomicrobiology have revolutionized our views of the origin of life, the effects that microbial life has had on the Earth, the effect that the Earth has had on the development and evolution of life, and the interaction between microbes and the environment through time. Recently, a number of publications have been devoted to geomicrobiology in a variety of environments (Banfield and Nealson 1997, Ehrlich 1998, Newman and Banfield 2002, Macalady and
Banfield 2003, Burton and Lappin-Scott 2005, Edwards et al. 2005, Fang and Bazylinski 2008). Here we present a brief review of recent advances in deep-sea geomicrobiology and biotechnology.
