New Zealand Post Antarctic Scholarship

Sarah Hawkins
University of Waikato, MSc

Antarctic bacteria and enzyme temperature optima.

This project aimed to correlate the environmental temperature of organisms with the molecular properties of their enzymes. The thermal properties of a particular enzyme were compared between bacteria that had been growing at different environmental temperatures, but were from the same genus, Bacillus. The project gives a better understanding of the biochemical and physiological adaptations of Antarctic microorganisms to the cold climate.

Publications
Hawkins, S.K. Antarctic bacteria and enzyme temperature optima. University of Waikato, MSc. 2003.