Diversity of psychrophilic bacteria in sea and glacier ice environments—insights through genomics, metagenomics, and proteomics approaches

Psychrophilic bacteria and microbial communities play important biogeochemical roles in the vast majority of Earth environments. They are phylogenetically diverse and exhibit a host of molecular traits that confer functionality at low temperatures (and often saline or osmotic stress conditions) for growth. Recent advances in genomic, metagenomic, proteomic, and metaproteomic technologies have provided an unprecedented detailed view of the phylogenetic diversity, the molecular underpinnings providing fitness and success and begin to better describe the ecological function of this interesting group of microorganisms. Combining the various “omics” molecular approaches with measures of microbial productivity, activity, geochemical and physical characterization, and modeling efforts in low-temperature environments will provide the next critical steps toward a better understanding of low-temperature microbial ecosystem function and potential changes in an increasingly warmer Earth