Thermophilic and Halophilic Microorganisms Isolated from Extreme Environments of Turkey, with Potential Biotechnological Applications

Turkey has a great number of different ecological areas, owning over 200 hot water resources and various hypersaline environments with a broad microbial diversity and opportunities for newly isolated microorganisms from extreme environments for many industrial applications. A variety of thermophilic and halophilic microorganisms in different regions of Turkey have been isolated and identified. The thermophilic bacterial members studied were Anoxybacillus, Geobacillus, Bacillus, Brevibacillus, and Aeribacillus belonging to the Bacillaceae family and the other thermophiles such as Thermus and Thermomonas, whereas the isolated halophilic microorganisms were mainly found to be members of the archaeal family Halobacteriaceae or grouped into bacterial phylum Bacteroidetes. In summary, the present study reviews on (1) isolating and identifying thermophiles and halophiles single or as community from various extreme habitats in Turkey based on conventional (morphological, physiological and biochemical tests) and/or molecular methods, (2) screening these extremophiles for industrially important enzymes, (3) studying other novel products and their use in other areas of biotechnology, and finally (4) discussing about the development strategies and the future perspectives on poorly studied extremophilic microorganisms in the country to fulfill future biotechnological and industrial demands.