Microbial UV-Resilience: Extremophilic Bacterial Adaptations

Extremophilic bacteria prosper in some of the Earth's brightest UV hotspots - from the high altitude Andean and Tibetan lakes that bathe in year-round solar radiation; the ice-free soils and supraglacial streams in the Arctic and Antarctic; the salt flats of the Atacama Desert, and even the upper troposphere or stratosphere sampled by high altitude balloons. Studying such bacteria offers unique windows into survival strategies shaped by intense ultraviolet stress

Recent work combining high-resolution genomics with state-of-the-art microscopy is beginning to unravel the genetic, phenotypic and structural defenses that underpin UV resilience—yet many evolutionary questions remain open. This Research Topic seeks to map and contextualise UV-resistance mechanisms (the UV-resistome) in extremophilic bacteria such as Exiguobacterium sp. S17, showcasing how diverse habitats have sculpted convergent and divergent solutions to UV challenge.

We welcome Original Research, Reviews, Perspectives and Methods papers that address (but are not limited to):

• Historical milestones in recognizing and characterizing UV-resistant extremophiles;

• Genetic and phenotypic adaptations e.g., specialized DNA-repair pathways, photoprotective pigments, radiation-induced regulons;

• Intercellular nanotubes and vesicles in stress sensing and communal protection;

• Breakthrough analytical tools such as comparative genomics, single-cell omics, cryogenic electron microscopy, correlative light–electron microscopy, in-situ spectroscopy etc.;

• Evolutionary trajectories of UV-resilience genes across taxa and environments.

Contributions should explicitly relate findings to their source ecosystems, for example high-altitude lakes (Puna-HAAL, Tibetan Plateau), polar deserts and cryo-ecosystems (Arctic/Antarctic Dry Valleys, supraglacial streams), hyper-arid deserts (Atacama, Sahara), volcanic fields, and stratospheric aerosols, thereby highlighting how environmental context drives adaptation.

By integrating comparative genomics with breakthrough imaging, this collection will advance our understanding of how extremophilic bacteria harness genetic and structural innovation to endure under extreme UV exposure.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: UV-resilience mechanisms, protective pigmentation, Extremophilic bacteria, high-UV environments, DNA repair systems, UV-resistance traits, bacterial stress responses, Extreme UV exposure

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.