ABSTRACT
Microbes have a truly enormous influence on people’s lives. They clean up the environment and they make soil fertile; they are all important in food technology; they make vitamins within our bodies. The ensemble of enzymes and other biomolecules that make up the microbe have specific temperature ranges over which they functions optimally. Three cardinal temperatures can be defined for an individual microbe – the minimum, optimum, and maximum growth temperatures. Thermophiles, which means “heat loving,” flourish in many habitats including composting piles, self-heating hay piles, and hot springs. In parasitic or predatory nutrition, some or all of the organic material is derived from living cells. A number of eubacteria and eukaryotic microbes are halotolerant, and they tend to dominate in the less saline waters of Gilbert Bay. The microbe is a chemoorganoheterotroph that thrives at 70°C and survives over a range from 50 to 80°C.
