Sorokin, Muyzer, and co-workers review the progress of current techniques and methods to identify key processes and genes in carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur biogeochemical cycles mediated by cultured and uncultured bacterial and archaeal microorganisms from soda lakes (Sorokin et al. 2014), while Ventosa and his team illustrate different methodologies that have been used to investigate the microbial diversity and ecology of the hypersaline environments of the multi-pond saltern at Santa Pola in Spain (Ventosa et al. 2014). Halophilic microorganisms in hypersaline environments are also the topic of a comprehensive review by Oren. This article focuses on the taxonomy and classification of the archaeal family Halobacteriaceae (Oren 2014). Another review by Santos and her team sheds light on the adaptation of marine microorganisms to thrive in hot environments by accumulating unusual compatible solutes. The article focuses on mannosylglycerate, a solute associated with osmoadaptation in thermophilic prokaryotes, but unrelated with stress protection in red algae. Therefore, this compound is a very interesting example to investigate the evolutionary history and physiological roles of such production pathways in diverse lineages of the Tree of Life (Borges et al. 2014). Deep-sea bacteria and their enzyme systems isolated from a sediment core were investigated in a research project developed in the groups of Antranikian and Horikoshi. Metagenome sequencing enabled the identification of more than 200 genes encoding carbohydrate-active enzymes from psychrophiles. Ten different glycoside hydrolases were produced in recombinant form and investigated toward their potential for industrial applications (Klippel et al. 2014). Hedlund and partners review the synergistic impact of combined metagenomic- and single-cell genomic approaches to identify, classify, and understand uncultivatable extremophilic microorganisms (Hedlund et al. 2014). The outstanding cooperative original work by the groups of Koonin and Prangishvili deals with the genome-wide identification of poorly characterized, fast evolving, and clustered genomic regions in archaeal genomes that are composed of viruses, mobile elements, defense and membrane-associated systems. Such gene clusters were denoted as “dark matter islands” and their existences were compared in thermophiles and mesophiles (Makarova et al. 2014). Ciaramella and co-workers review recent exciting scientific advances to understand repair and defense mechanisms in hyperthermophilic Bacteria and Archaea. These extremophiles thrive in an environment that favors genome instability and the authors report on the coordinated action of highly specific repair enzymes focussing on reverse gyrase and DNA alkyltransferase (Vettone et al. 2014). Two original papers from Albers’ and Ishino’s team shed light on archaeal physiology and development. Sulfolobus acidocaldarius is the model organism used by Albers and co-workers to investigate the cleavage activity of a series of class III signal peptidase PibD mutants (Henche et al. 2014). Ishino’s laboratory demonstrates interaction of proteins within the archaeal ternary complex TaMCM-TaGINS-TaCdc6-2 supporting evolutionary differences in DNA replication complexes of Archaea and Eukaryotes (Ogino et al. 2014). Moreover, Thomm and co-workers contributed a review, which deals with new findings concerning transcriptional regulation in the Archaea. They focus on the TrmB family of bacterial-like transcription regulators capable of modulating the eukaryotic-like transcription apparatus in Archaea (Gindner et al. 2014). We thank our authors for their outstanding contributions and hope that you enjoy reading this Special Issue. Yours sincerely, Garabed Antranikian—Editor-in-Chief Elizaveta Bonch-Osmolovskaya—Chair of Extremophiles 2014 and Guest Editor Haruyuki Atomi—Managing Editor Aharon Oren—Managing Editor Michael W. Adams—Guest Editor Helena Santos—Guest Editor References Borges N, Jorge CD, Gonçalves LG, Gonçalves S, Matias PM, Santos H (2014). Mannosylglycerate: structural analysis of biosynthesis and evolutionary history. Extremophiles. doi:10.1007/s00792-014-0661-x [Titel anhand dieser DOI in Citavi-Projekt übernehmen] Gindner A, Hausner W, Thomm M (2014). The TrmB family —a versatile group of transcriptional regulators in Archaea. Extremophiles. doi:10.1007/s00792-014-0677-2 [Titel anhand dieser DOI in Citavi-Projekt übernehmen] Hedlund BP, Dodsworth JA, Murugapiran SK, Rinke C, Woyke T (2014). Impact of single-cell genomics and metagenomics on the emerging view of extremophile “microbial dark matter”. Extremophiles. doi:10.1007/s00792-014-0664-7 [Titel anhand dieser DOI in Citavi-Projekt übernehmen] Henche A-L, van Wolferen M, Ghosh A, Albers S-V (2014). Dissection of key determinants of cleavage activity in Class III signal peptidase PibD. Extremophiles. doi:10.1007/s00792-014-0675-4 [Titel anhand dieser DOI in Citavi-Projekt übernehmen] Klippel B, Sahm K, Basner A, Wiebusch S, John P, Lorenz U, Peters A, Abe F, Takahashi K, Kaiser O, Goesmann A, Jaenicke S, Grote R, Horikoshi K, Antranikian G (2014). Carbohydrate-active enzymes identified by metagenomic analysis of deep-sea sediment bacteria. Extremophiles. doi:10.1007/s00792-014-0676-3 [Titel anhand dieser DOI in Citavi-Projekt übernehmen] Makarova KS, Wolf YI, Forterre P, Prangishvili D, Krupovic M, Koonin EV (2014). Dark matter in archaeal genomes: a rich source of novel mobile elements, defense systems and secretory complexes Extremophiles. doi:10.1007/s00792-014-0672-7 [Titel anhand dieser DOI in Citavi-Projekt übernehmen] Ogino H, Ishino S, Haugland GT, Birkeland N-K, Kohda D, Ishino Y (2014). Activation of the MCM helicase from the thermophilic archaeon, Thermoplasma acidophilum by interactions with GINS and Cdc6-2. Extremophiles. doi:10.1007/s00792-014-0673-6 [Titel anhand dieser DOI in Citavi-Projekt übernehmen] Oren A (2014). Taxonomy of halophilic Archaea: current status and future challenges. Extremophiles. doi:10.1007/s00792-014-0654-9 [Titel anhand dieser DOI in Citavi-Projekt übernehmen] Sorokin DY, Berben T, Melton ED, Overmars L, Vavourakis C, Muyzer G (2014). Microbial diversity and biogeochemical cycling in soda lakes. Extremophiles. doi:10.1007/s00792-014-0670-9 [Titel anhand dieser DOI in Citavi-Projekt übernehmen] Ventosa A, Fernández AB, León MJ, Sánchez-Porro C, Rodriguez-Valera F (2014). The Santa Pola saltern as a model for studying the microbiota of hypersaline environments. Extremophiles. doi:10.1007/s00792-014-0681-6 [Titel anhand dieser DOI in Citavi-Projekt übernehmen] Vettone A, Perugino G, Rossi M, Valenti A, Ciaramella M (2014). Genome stability: recent insights in the topoisomerase reverse gyrase and thermophilic DNA-alkyltransferase. Extremophiles. doi:10.1007/s00792-014-0662-9 [Titel anhand dieser DOI in Citavi-Projekt übernehmen] Download references Author information Affiliations Institute of Technical Microbiology, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Kasernenstr. 12, 21073, Hamburg, Germany Garabed Antranikian Winogradsky Institute of Microbiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Prosp. 60 Let Oktyabrya 7/2, 117312, Moscow, Russia Elizaveta Bonch-Osmolovskaya Department of Synthetic Chemistry and Biological Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Katsura, Nishikyo-ku, Kyoto, 615-8510, Japan Haruyuki Atomi Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat-Ram, 91904, Jerusalem, Israel Aharon Oren Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA Michael W. Adams Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Av. da República-EAN, 2780-157, Oeiras, Portugal Helena Santos Corresponding author Correspondence to Garabed Antranikian. Additional information This editorial is part of a special issue based on the 10th International Congress on Extremophiles held in Saint Petersburg, Russia, September 7–11, 2014. Rights and permissions Reprints and Permissions About this article Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark Cite this article Antranikian, G., Bonch-Osmolovskaya, E., Atomi, H. et al. International conference on extremophiles 2014. Extremophiles 18, 789–790 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-014-0690-5 [Titel anhand dieser DOI in Citavi-Projekt übernehmen] Download citation Published27 August 2014 Issue DateSeptember 2014 DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-014-0690-5 [Titel anhand dieser DOI in Citavi-Projekt übernehmen] Share this article Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative Download PDF Part of a collection: 10th International Congress on Extremophiles More than 300 participants representing research organizations from 40 countries will meet September 7–11, 2014 at the 10th International Congress on Extremophiles in Saint Petersburg, Russia. This conference will include topics on genetics, genomics, ecology and diversity, physiology, and applications of extremophilic microorganisms. We are pleased to introduce our Special Issue that includes a selection of articles from the speakers in the plenary sessions and workshops of the forthcoming Extremophiles conference representing the broad and versatile range of work going on in our very active community. Invited speakers have contributed research papers and reviews covering their respective topics to be discussed at the meeting. The topics of these articles illustrate recent and remarkable progress and feature the best of the latest in research on extremophiles.