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The Lut Desert and Its Microbial Diversity: Recent Studies and Future Research

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Abstract

A significant proportion of the Earth surface is covered by deserts. Despite the stressful environmental conditions, deserts can host diverse microbial populations, especially extremophiles. Due to their remarkable adaptive capabilities, extremophiles have been used in biotechnology and medicine. Understanding microbial diversity in arid environments offers also potential sources of new natural bioactive metabolites. The Lut Desert, located in the eastern part of Iran, is one of the driest and hottest deserts around the world. It presents a collection of unique natural phenomena and geological records. In this review, we describe the previous efforts to show the microbial diversity in the Lut Desert and highlight their promising applications.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Quality Control Department, Production and Development of Cyclotron Radiopharmaceuticals, Pars Isotope Company, Karaj, Iran

    M. S. Shirsalimian

  2. Nuclear Science and Technology Research Institute, Tehran, Iran

    S. M. Mazidi

  3. Extremophiles Laboratory, Department of Microbiology, School of Biology and Center of Excellence in Phylogeny of Living Organisms, College of Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    M. A. Amoozegar

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Shirsalimian, M.S., Mazidi, S.M. & Amoozegar, M.A. The Lut Desert and Its Microbial Diversity: Recent Studies and Future Research. Microbiology 91, 215–224 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0026261722300014

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