- Argentina - Portal público de noticias de la República Argentina.
For the first time in history, Argentine scientists have described a comprehensive genetic map for living beings. It is the discovery of a bacterium known as Biziona argentinensis, which lives in the Antarctic region.
This bacterium lived peacefully on the Southern Shetland Islands in the Antarctic glacier ocean. No scientist had ever detected it as a species type until 2001 when the Human Genome Project began. This project involved a joint research work conducted by Bio Sidus, a biotechnology company, and the National Antarctic Research Institute.
This bacterium was then discovered among 400 other microorganisms and it has come to light that it can live in environments being really hostile for life such as the one in the glaciers. It was called Biziona argentinensis. After many years devoted to research, its full genetic heritage has been sequenced. This project has been a cooperative endeavour by a private laboratory and the Argentine Antarctic Institute, which stands a good chance of having industrial applications.
The scientists in charge of the research work remarked that these living beings known as extremophiles because they can live at very low temperatures or in highly saline environments, might come to have industrial applications as they are enzyme producers allowing themselves to adapt to cold weather, which is not something so usual.
Such a breakthrough was publicly announced on February 6. The article disclosing this scientific advance has been submitted and accepted for publication in the Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, in which the existence of “recently discovered” microbes is recorded.
