Kingdom Archaea

{       live in hot springs, sea floor vents, alkaline or acidic water, extremely saline environments, inside volcanoes, in piles of hot coals and deep below the Earth’s surface

{       all live without oxygen (anaerobic) and obtain their energy from inorganic molecules (chemosyntheisis) or light (photosynthesis)

{       biochemically and genetically, archaea are as different from bacteria as they are from plants and animals

{       archaea are classified according to the molecules they contain

• {       three main groups:   
• Methanogens – methane producing
• Halophiles – salt loving

• Thermoacidophiles – heat and acid loving

Archaea Biotechnology

{       enzymes that carry out archaean metabolic processes are being studied

{       PCR, used to create multiple copies of genes, is viable today because of the isolation of an archaean enzyme that can function at high temperatures

Archaea and the Origin of Life

{       Earth’s early atmosphere: water, methane and ammonia

{       page 418 Miller and Urey’s Experiment

{       compounds + Sun’s energy + lightning energy = chemical reactions

{       products were amino acids, sugars and other simple organic compounds

{       continue for a long time and more complex molecules are produced

{       archaea can exist in environments found on the Earth like this today may have been the first organism on earth