Introductory Chapter: A Brief Overview of Archaeal Applications

Abstract

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter PrologueThe irst member of the Archaea was described in 1880 [1][2][3]. Yet, the recognition and formal description of the domain Archaea, as separated from Bacteria and Eukarya, occurred in 1977 during early phylogenetic analyses based upon ribosomal DNA sequences [4][5][6] The Archaea are ubiquitous in most terrestrial, aquatic and extreme environments (acidophilic, halophilic, mesophilic, methanogenic, psychrophilic and thermophilic) [20,22]. Although very diversiied with a great number of species, luckily, no member of the domain Archaea has been described as a pathogen for humans, animals or plants [23][24][25]. Thus, Archaea are a potentially valuable resource in the development of new biocatalysts, novel pharmaceuticals and various biotechnological applications. Applications of Archaea (for review, see [26][27][28][29][30][31][32] and references therein) may be subdivided into four main ields (Figure 1): (i) commercial enzymes and/or molecules, (ii) environment, (iii) food and (iv) health.

Carboxymethylated Sulfated Heteroexopolysaccharide from a Haloarchaeal Strain as Potential Biomolecule for Harmless Adjuvant Therapy in Cancer Treatment

“…Although very diversified with a great number of species, luckily, no member of the domain Archaea has been described as a pathogen for humans, animals, or plants [31,32]. e CS-hEPS produced by the archaeon H. borinquense was similar to other microbial EPS with respect to crude chemical and mainly monosaccharide composition.…”