20 research outputs found
Viruses in extreme environments
The original publication is available at www.springerlink.comInternational audienceThe tolerance limits of extremophiles in term of temperature, pH, salinity, desiccation, hydrostatic pressure, radiation, anaerobiosis far exceed what can support non-extremophilic organisms. Like all other organisms, extremophiles serve as hosts for viral replication. Many lines of evidence suggest that viruses could no more be regarded as simple infectious ‘‘fragments of life'' but on the contrary as one of the major components of the biosphere. The exploration of niches with seemingly harsh life conditions as hypersaline and soda lakes, Sahara desert, polar environments or hot acid springs and deep sea hydrothermal vents, permitted to track successfully the presence of viruses. Substantial populations of double-stranded DNA virus that can reach 109 particles per milliliter were recorded. All these viral communities, with genome size ranging from 14 kb to 80 kb, seem to be genetically distinct, suggesting specific niche adaptation. Nevertheless, at this stage of the knowledge, very little is known of their origin, activity, or importance to the in situ microbial dynamics. The continuous attempts to isolate and to study viruses that thrive in extreme environments will be needed to address such questions. However, this topic appears to open a new window on an unexplored part of the viral world
Is the Value of Bioprospecting Contracts Too Low?
In order to regulate the proliferated bioprospecting and protect the biological diversity in the source countries, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) established a legal framework for the reciprocal transfer of biological materials between the interested parties in bioprospecting activities, subject to the Prior Informed Content (PIC) principles and a set of mutually agreed items on equitable sharing of benefits (CBD 1992, Bhat 1999; Ten Kate and Laird 1999; Dedeurwaerdere 2005). Although interesting and valuable to the cause of conservation, there is a feeling that the 'price' being paid under these arrangements is too low. Somehow ecologists argue that, surely, these materials have a greater value than the few million dollars being paid to national conservation organizations for the protection of the areas where the material are located. In this paper we seek to understand better how a biodiversity resource' use value in production is determined, and how the real value is obscured by the fact that the resource is largely open access. We attempt to analyse how special arrangements, set op top of a basic framework in which the resource open access is limited in what it can achieve and in the 'price' that will emerge from any transaction between the buyers of the rights and the sellers of the rights