Life under extreme energy limitation: a synthesis of laboratory- and field-based investigations
Open accessAbstract
The ability of microorganisms to withstand long periods with extremely low energy input has gained increasing scientific attention in recent years. Starvation experiments in the laboratory have shown that a phylogenetically wide range of microorganisms evolve fitness-enhancing genetic traits within weeks of incubation under low-energy stress. Studies on natural environments that are cut off from new energy supplies over geologic time scales, such as deeply buried sediments, suggest that similar adaptations might mediate survival under energy limitation in the environment. Yet, the extent to which laboratory-based evidence of starvation survival in pure or mixed cultures can be extrapolated to sustained microbial ecosystems in nature remains unclear. In this review, we discuss past investigations on microbial energy requirements and adaptations to energy limitation, identify gaps in our current knowledge, and outline possible future foci of research on life under extreme energy limitation.
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Living in an oxic environment comes at great expense; an enormous amount of energy production at the cellular level is devoted to maintenance, and many destructive processes occur more rapidly in oxic environments, with higher initial cost of monomer synthesis.
“However, living in an oxic environment also comes at great expense. An enormous amount of energy production at the cellular level is devoted to maintenance, as cells continuously battle against damage of biomolecules from a variety of processes (racemization, cross-linking, depurination, oxidation, etc.). Many of these destructive processes occur more rapidly in oxic environments, and the initial”
From Oxygenation, Life, and the Planetary System during Earth's Middle History: An Overview (2021) · cites this paper as Lever et al., 2015
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- Authors
- Lever, M. A., Rogers, K. L., Lloyd, K. G., Overmann, J., Schink, B., Thauer, R. K., Hoehler, T. M., & Jørgensen, B. B.
- Affiliations
- Aarhus University (DK)
- Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (US)
- University of Tennessee at Knoxville (US)
- Leibniz Institute DSMZ – German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures (DE)
- University of Konstanz (DE)
- Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology (DE)
- Ames Research Center (US)
- ORCID
- Venue
- FEMS Microbiology Reviews
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2015-05-20
- Volume
- 39
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 688-728
- ISSN
- 0168-6445 (ISSN-L)
- 1574-6976
- OpenAlex
- W1919969142
- Cited by
- 378
- References
- 9
- Citations by year
- 2026: 38 · 2025: 27 · 2024: 36 · 2023: 40 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 42 · 2020: 41 · 2019: 46 · 2018: 33 · 2017: 25 · 2016: 20 · 2015: 7
- FWCI
- 2.59
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- FEMS Microbiology Reviews (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Repository for Publications and Research Data (ETH Zurich) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (GEOMAR) (acceptedVersion)
- KOPS (University of Konstanz) (submittedVersion)
- Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (submittedVersion)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
- ETH Zürich Research Collection
- Funders
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations
- National Research Foundation
- Danmarks Grundforskningsfond
- Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Evolution and Genetic Dynamics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Polar Research and Ecology
- Keywords
- starvation survival, microbial adaptation, evolutionary fitness, deep-sea sediments, microbial ecosystems
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Physiological, Energy Metabolism, Research, Ecosystem, Bacterial Physiological Phenomena
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