Habitat:

The cold environments that psychrophiles inhabit are ubiquitous on Earth, as

a large fraction of our planetary surface experiences temperatures lower
than 15 °C. They are present in permafrost, polar ice, glaciers, snowfields, or
deep ocean waters. They are also found in mountain ranges throughout the
continents.

Psychrophile:

Psychrophile is Greek for 'cold-loving', from ψυχρός (psukhrós: cold, frozen).

Psychrophiles or cryophiles are extremophilic organisms that are capable of
growth and reproduction in low temperatures, ranging from −20 °C to +10 °C.

Taxonomic Range:

Psychrophiles include bacteria, lichens, fungi, and insects.

Bacteria:
Arthrobacter sp
Psychrobacter sp.
Members of the genera Halomonas, Pseudomonas, Hyphomonas, and
Sphingomonas ,
Chryseobacterium greenlandensis,

Lichens:
Umbilicaria antarctica
Xanthoria elegans

Fungi :
Members of genus Penicillium

Insects :
Grylloblattidae or ice crawlers
Belgica antarctica
Adaptations :

Enzymes:
Psychrophiles enzymes are specially evolved to engage in an activity-
stability-flexibility relationship as a method for adapting to the cold; the
flexibility of their it’s structure will increase as a way to compensate for the
freezing effect of their environment.

Antifreeze proteins:
Specially synthesized to keep psychrophiles' internal space liquid, and to
protect their DNA when temperatures drop below water's freezing point. By
doing so, the protein prevents any ice formation or recrystallization process
from occurring.

Lipid membrane:
To avoid stiffening of their lipid cell membrane, psychrophiles adapted lipid
membrane structures that have a high content of short, unsaturated fatty
acids. This allows for the lipid cell membrane to have a lower melting point,
which increases the fluidity of the membranes.
Presence of Carotenoids in the membrane help modulate the fluidity .

Low vitrification temperature :

Psychrophiles are protected from freezing and the expansion of ice by ice-
induced desiccation and vitrification (glass transition), as long as they cool
slowly. Free living cells desiccate and vitrify between −10 °C and −26 °C. Cells
of multicellular organisms may vitrify at temperatures below −50 °C.

VBNC state :
Certain cryophiles can transition into a viable but nonculturable (VBNC) state
During VBNC, a micro-organism can respire and use substrates for
metabolism – however, it cannot replicate. Gram positive bacteria
Actinobacteria have been shown to have lived about 500,000 years in the
permafrost conditions of Antarctica, Canada, and Siberia.
Importantance of studying Psychrophiles:

Psychrophiles always remained fascinating for astrobiologists because

studying them can give us insight how life can evolve and survive in freezing
cold environments on the other worlds. Among the possibilities are fossils in
ancient Martian lakebeds and bacteria wrapped in mucus and ice on
Jupiter’s moon Europa.
Martian poles and lake beds has always been a very possible candidate for
place which can harbor life outside our planet. Cumulative evidence
suggests that during the ancient Noachian time period, the surface
environment of Mars had liquid water and may have been habitable for
microorganism.
Scientists think Europa’s ice shell is 10 to 15 miles (15 to 25 kilometers) thick,
floating on an ocean 40 to 100 miles (60 to 150 kilometers) deep. So while
Europa is only one-fourth the diameter of Earth, its ocean may contain twice
as much water as all of Earth’s oceans combined. Europa’s vast and
unfathomably deep ocean is widely considered the most promising place to
look for life beyond Earth.

Reference :
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_on_Mars
2. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-
sciences/psychrophiles
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakes_on_Mars
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychrophile
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraterrestrial_life