Molecular Mechanisms of Cold Adaptation in Bacteria

Bacteria are ubiquitous in nature and have the ability to survive in severe conditions of low temperature, high pressure and often changing osmotic environment. However, mechanisms of survival of bacteria in extreme environments are still not completely understood. Low temperature adaptation in bacteria is initiated by its abilities to sense the change in environmental temperature and transduce the signal to regulate the expression of required genes for survival. Adaptation at low temperature involves several strategies such as increase in membrane fluidity, decrease in activation energy for enzyme activity, production of cold shock chaperones, induction of cold inducible genes, inhibition of the cold denaturation of protein and by enhancing the efficiency of transcription and translation. This review highlights the molecular mechanisms of cold adaptation in bacteria.