The Central Andes environments in South America hold extremophilic communities adapted to live in harsh conditions, especially of high UV radiation and desiccation. The aim of this project is to describe novel metabolisms and molecular mechanisms, involved in adaptive responses to stress conditions, to understand the complex relationships between organisms and their environment, and to gain insights into the biogeochemical cycles on Earth. To achieve this objective, we take samples from the extreme Andean ecosystems, perform molecular and bioinformatic analyses to determine the structure and functioning of the communities, study isolates under controlled environmental conditions and investigate novel proteins through biophysical approaches.
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