The thermal limit for metazoan life, expected to be around 50� C, has been debated since
the discovery of the Pompeii worm Alvinella pompejana, which colonizes black smoker�…

As the third domain of life, archaea, like the eukarya and bacteria, must have robust DNA
replication and repair complexes to ensure genome fidelity. Archaea moreover display a�…

Temperature, perhaps more than any other environmental factor, is likely to influence the
evolution of all organisms. It is also a very interesting factor to understand how genomes are�…

Background Alvinella pompejana is an annelid worm that inhabits deep-sea hydrothermal
vent sites in the Pacific Ocean. Living at a depth of approximately 2500 meters, these worms�…

2.1 Introduction Fauna inhabiting the deep-sea usually obtains its nutrition from sinking
organic matter formed by photosynthesis in the photic zone. This photosynthetic organic�…

DNA polymerase η (pol η) plays a critical role in suppressing mutations caused by the
bypass of cis–syn cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CPD) that escape repair. There is�…

Hydroxyl radicals generate a broad range of DNA lesions in living cells. Cyclopurine
deoxynucleosides (CPUs) are a biologically significant class of oxidative DNA lesions due to�…

Oxidative DNA lesions inhibit the transcription of RNA polymerase II, but in the presence of
transcription elongation factors, the transcription can bypass the lesions. Single-subunit�…

Eukaryotic DNA polymerase eta (Pol η) plays a key role in the efficient and accurate DNA
translesion synthesis (TLS) opposite UV-induced thymine dimers. Pol η is also involved in�…

Cys loop receptors (CLRs) are commonly known as ligand-gated channels that transiently
open upon binding of neurotransmitters to modify the membrane potential. However, a class�…