Biophysical Society Bulletin | January 2025

Communities

Insights into Life under Extreme Conditions: How Does It Happen and Why Do We Care? In October 2024, the Convention Center of Phoenix, Arizona hosted the annual SACNAS NDiSTEM Conference. As many of you know, SACNAS is the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans. This organi zation focuses on encouraging underrepresented scientists across the United States in a variety of ways. The emphasis is on promoting networking and highlighting the benefits of pursuing advanced degrees and scholarly research in STEM. The SACNAS National Conference brings together thousands of ethnically underrepresented undergraduate and gradu ate students, postdocs, university professors, and industrial scientists. The SACNAS National Conference provides under represented young scholars with exposure to a wide range of recent scientific concepts and discoveries. In addition, SAC NAS attendees can visit a large number of exhibitor booths that advertise graduate school programs as well as industrial, postdoctoral, and academic jobs available across the United States. The event was chaired by Silvia Cavagnero , Professor of Chem istry and Biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin–Mad ison. She started the session by explaining the meaning of the term “biophysics,” which is often regarded as somewhat mysterious by non-experts. She provided several examples of what biophysicists do, and how they often synergistically combine computation and experiments to quantitatively un derstand and predict the behavior of biological systems. The session continued with a presentation by Raina Maier , who is a Professor of Environmental Sciences at the University of Arizona, Tucson. Maier explained how contamination of arid soils near mining sites due to a variety of pollutants, including heavy metals and strong acids, created extreme conditions preventing the growth of plants. Adding compost to these ar eas introduced beneficial microbes and increased the pH suf ficiently to allow growth of native plants that have evolved to thrive under warm, dry, acidic conditions. Importantly, these plants do not accumulate metals into above-ground biomass. Maier showed how this growth can be beneficial to reclaim these areas and prevent dust emission and soil erosion, pro viding overall benefits to the living communities on earth.

The next speaker was Daniel Colman , an Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology at Montana State University. Colman studies the evolution and ecology of microorganisms living under extreme conditions in the hot springs of Yellowstone National Park and Iceland and subsurface systems around the world, among other areas. In his talk, he showed how character istics of extreme environments (i.e., geochemistry) that are modulated by their geologic set tings affect the contemporary ecology, as well as the evolu

Speakers of the 2024 SACNAS session on Biology and Life under Extreme Conditions, from the top, clockwise: Raina Maier, Daniel Colman, Catherine Royer, Hugo Tapia, and Silvia Cavagnero.

tionary histories of microorganisms over billions of years. Col man’s work also pointed to new physiological and biochemical insights into some of the earliest branching microorganisms that are present in hot springs and subsurface environments. The next presentation was by Catherine Royer , who is a Pro fessor and Constellation Chair in the Department of Chem istry and Chemical Biology of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, as well as a previous president of the Biophysical Society. Royer explained that high pressure leads to protein unfolding and highlighted that this phenomenon is promoted by the presence of cavities within the protein native state. She also went on describing her ongoing studies on the chemical and physical characteristics of specific microorgan isms living at elevated pressures. Royer also shared intriguing insights on how high pressure affects proteostasis, including the promotion of unusual concentrations of specific molecular chaperones. Last but not least, Hugo Tapia , Professor of Biol ogy at California State University Channel Islands, focused on describing how the model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae , i.e., baker’s yeast, copes with lack of water in the environ ment. The answer is surprisingly simple: this organism upreg ulates the production of trehalose. This disaccharide, in turn, induces a glassy state in the intracellular environment, which enables survival despite the presence of severe desiccation. In summary, the 2024 SACNAS session on “Life under Ex treme Conditions” provided a fascinating glimpse into how living organisms adapt to unthinkably harsh environmental conditions, and yet manage to support transcription/trans lation, biomolecular folding, catalysis, and other essential processes for life on earth.

January 2025

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