Living with Salt: Genetics and Ecology of Halophiles

  • 22k

    Total downloads

  • 118k

    Total views and downloads

About this Research Topic

Submission closed

Background

Natural hypersaline habitats exist across our planet, usually prevailing in coastal regions characterized by warm and dry climate, but also present in inland water bodies, deep-sea locations or geological strata, or even associated with surfaces of animals, plants and food. Such sites can be chemically diverse and commonly reach salinity levels almost ten times greater than that in normal seawater, excluding most lifeforms on Earth.
High-salinities are particularly challenging because cells need to effectively counterbalance the increase in osmotic pressure in the environment to prevent water loss and the corresponding disturbances in cellular activities and/or viability. Some halophiles increase internal ion concentrations (“salt in” strategy) to combat the high salinity, but this usually also requires permanent structural changes in their intrinsic enzymes and cellular machinery, which in the long term, prevents normal enzymatic functions at lower salinities. While the “salt-in” strategy is chiseled in textbooks as a hallmark trait of extreme halophiles, recent genomic data suggests that some lineages likely adopted the salt-in strategy for osmoregulation without imposing dramatic shifts in the structural properties of their proteins.

Several other halophiles rely on an alternative strategy, leading to the production of compatible solutes (osmolytes), which allows cells to cope with multiple salinity regimes without also changing their proteomic properties. However, the osmolyte strategy is energetically costly. As a rule of thumb, metabolic diversity is constrained by energetics at high salinities, which explains also the often-low taxonomic diversity in hypersaline environments. Other confounding factors such as the high density of viruses and distinct chemical profiles of hypersaline environments likely also contribute to the low diversity. Despite such adversities, halophiles thrive and are found in all three domains of life.

Notwithstanding primary research efforts in the last decades, many fundamental facets in the microbial ecology of dominant groups, particularly their biochemistry and roles remain uncharacterized, highlighting key research directions for further exploration. Moreover, hypersaline habitats contain an unprecedented array of uncultivated novel groups decorating the prokaryotic tree of life; most cultivated species currently serve as treasure troves for enzymes in food and medical biotechnologies.

Although significant strides in sequencing technologies have opened a path for large-scale exploration of structure-function relationships in hypersaline environments, the metabolic traits underpinning the roles of a vast majority of signature groups remain untapped due to the paucity of genomic data. Thus, details regarding the ecology of many of these microbes remain obscure. Against this backdrop, is the recent evidence indicating that some of these lineages harbor metabolic traits presumptively constrained by bioenergetics, which also offered clues to the evolutionary history of methanogenesis. Also, a challenge currently remains on how to study the metabolic activity and transcriptional landscape of these microorganisms that are located in relatively inaccessible deep-sea settings or present at centimeter-scale environmental gradients.

The present Research Topic on “Living with Salt: Genetics and Ecology of Halophiles” aims to assemble contributions from scientists working on the genetics and microbial ecology of hypersaline habitats and environments with steep salinity gradients. Here, we would like to encourage authors to contribute research articles that are interdisciplinary, including original research, techniques, reviews, and synthesis articles.
Broadly, we would like contributions covering the following areas of research:
1). General physiology and biochemistry of novel candidate divisions or lineages
2). Adaptations to life under high salinity
3). Evolutionary history of halophiles
4). Microbial life in salinity gradients
5). Extracellular DNA: roles in nutritional ecology and epigenetics of halophiles
6). Phylogeny, taxonomy and biodiversity of halophiles
7). Halophiles as models for astrobiology
8). Future directions in the microbial ecology of hypersaline environments

Keywords: Halophiles, Ecogenomics, salinity gradients, Epigenetics, Evolution, Taxonomy, Diversity

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

Topic editors

Frequently asked questions

  • Frontiers' Research Topics are collaborative hubs built around an emerging theme.Defined, managed, and led by renowned researchers, they bring communities together around a shared area of interest to stimulate collaboration and innovation.

    Unlike section journals, which serve established specialty communities, Research Topics are pioneer hubs, responding to the evolving scientific landscape and catering to new communities.

  • The goal of Frontiers' publishing program is to empower research communities to actively steer the course of scientific publishing. Our program was implemented as a three-part unit with fixed field journals, flexible specialty sections, and dynamically emerging Research Topics, connecting communities of different sizes and maturity.

    Research Topics originate from the scientific community. Many of our Research Topics are suggested by existing editorial board members who have identified critical challenges or areas of interest in their field.

  • As an editor, Research Topics will help you build your journal, as well as your community, around emerging, cutting-edge research. As research trailblazers, Research Topics attract high-quality submissions from leading experts all over the world.

    A thriving Research Topic can potentially evolve into a new specialty section if there is sustained interest and a growing community around it.

  • Each Research Topic must be approved by the specialty chief editor, and it falls under the editorial oversight of our editorial boards, supported by our in-house research integrity team. The same standards and rigorous peer review processes apply to articles published as part of a Research Topic as for any other article we publish.

    In 2023, 80% of the Research Topics we published were edited or co-edited by our editorial board members, who are already familiar with their journal's scope, ethos, and publishing model. All other topics are guest edited by leaders in their field, each vetted and formally approved by the specialty chief editor.

  • Publishing your article within a Research Topic with other related articles increases its discoverability and visibility, which can lead to more views, downloads, and citations. Research Topics grow dynamically as more published articles are added, causing frequent revisiting, and further visibility.

    As Research Topics are multidisciplinary, they are cross-listed in several fields and section journals – increasing your reach even more and giving you the chance to expand your network and collaborate with researchers in different fields, all focusing on expanding knowledge around the same important topic.

    Our larger Research Topics are also converted into ebooks and receive social media promotion from our digital marketing team.

     

  • Frontiers offers multiple article types, but it will depend on the field and section journals in which the Research Topic will be featured. The available article types for a Research Topic will appear in the drop-down menu during the submission process.

    Check available article types here 

  • Yes, we would love to hear your ideas for a topic. Most of our Research Topics are community-led and suggested by researchers in the field. Our in-house editorial team will contact you to talk about your idea and whether you’d like to edit the topic. If you’re an early-stage researcher, we will offer you the opportunity to coordinate your topic, with the support of a senior researcher as the topic editor. 

    Suggest your topic here 

  • A team of guest editors (called topic editors) lead their Research Topic. This editorial team oversees the entire process, from the initial topic proposal to calls for participation, the peer review, and final publications.

    The team may also include topic coordinators, who help the topic editors send calls for participation, liaise with topic editors on abstracts, and support contributing authors. In some cases, they can also be assigned as reviewers.

  • As a topic editor (TE), you will take the lead on all editorial decisions for the Research Topic, starting with defining its scope. This allows you to curate research around a topic that interests you, bring together different perspectives from leading researchers across different fields and shape the future of your field. 

     

    You will choose your team of co-editors, curate a list of potential authors, send calls for participation and oversee the peer review process, accepting or recommending rejection for each manuscript submitted.

  • As a topic editor, you're supported at every stage by our in-house team. You will be assigned a single point of contact to help you on both editorial and technical matters. Your topic is managed through our user-friendly online platform, and the peer review process is supported by our industry-first AI review assistant (AIRA).

  • If you’re an early-stage researcher, we will offer you the opportunity to coordinate your topic, with the support of a senior researcher as the topic editor. This provides you with valuable editorial experience, improving your ability to critically evaluate research articles and enhancing your understanding of the quality standards and requirements for scientific publishing, as well as the opportunity to discover new research in your field, and expand your professional network.

  • Yes, certificates can be issued on request. We are happy to provide a certificate for your contribution to editing a successful Research Topic.

  • Research Topics thrive on collaboration and their multi-disciplinary approach around emerging, cutting-edge themes, attract leading researchers from all over the world.

  • As a topic editor, you can set the timeline for your Research Topic, and we will work with you at your pace. Typically, Research Topics are online and open for submissions within a few weeks and remain open for participation for 6 – 12 months. Individual articles within a Research Topic are published as soon as they are ready.

    Find out more about our Research Topics

  • Our fee support program ensures that all articles that pass peer review, including those published in Research Topics, can benefit from open access – regardless of the author's field or funding situation.

    Authors and institutions with insufficient funding can apply for a discount on their publishing fees. A fee support application form is available on our website.

  • In line with our mission to promote healthy lives on a healthy planet, we do not provide printed materials. All our articles and ebooks are available under a CC-BY license, so you can share and print copies.

     

Impact

  • 118kTopic views
  • 93kArticle views
  • 22kArticle downloads
View impact