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 Extremophiles
From Biology to Biotechnology
 LIST OF BOOKS EDITED BY THE AUTHORS

Ben-Amotz, A., J. E. W. Polle, and D. V. Subba Rao, eds. 2009. The Alga Dunaliella: Biodiversity,
Physiology, Genomics and Biotechnology. Enfield, NH: Science Publishers.

Satoskar, A., and R. Durvasula, eds. Pathogenesis of Leishmaniasis: New Developments in

Research. Berlin: Springer, 2014.

Sree Hari Rao, V., and R. Durvasula, eds. 2013. Dynamic Models of Infectious Diseases. Berlin:
Springer.

Subba Rao, D. V., ed. 1996. Present and Future of Oceanographic Programs in Developing
Countries, Vienna and Honolulu. IAPSO Publication Scientifique No. 36 and Andhra University
Memoirs No. 3. Visakhapatnam, India: Andhra University.

Subba Rao, D. V., ed. 2002. Pelagic Ecology Methodology. Rotterdam, Netherlands: Swets &
Zeitlinger and Balkema Publishers.

Subba Rao, D. V., ed. 2006. Algal Cultures, Analogues of Blooms and Applications. Vol. 1. Enfield,
NH: Science Publishers.

Subba Rao, D. V., ed. 2006. Algal Cultures, Analogues of Blooms and Applications. Vol. 2. Enfield,
NH: Science Publishers.
 (a) (b)

(c) (d)

(e) (f )

Sampling in the Antarctic for extremophiles; Dr. Amber G. Teufel and Dr. Rachael M. Morgan-Kiss.
 1 µm
(b)
(a)

(c) (d)

5 µm 10 µm

(e) (f )

(a) Baslnearium and (b) Thermotomaculam—hydrothermal vents; Dr. Mino Sayaka and Dr. Satoshi
Nakagawa. (c) Haloferax mediterranei. Colonies of halophilic microorganisms isolated from salted
water (Santa Pola); Dr. Rosa María Martínez-Espinosa. (d) Haloferax mediterranei cells (PHA produc-
tion); Dr. Vanesa Bautista Saiz. SEM images: (e) Gymnodinium sp. and (f) Brachiomonas sp. isolated
from Lake Bonney within the McCurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica; Dr. Wei Li, Montana University, USA.
 (a) (b)

(c) (d)

(e) (f )

Location of the desert Sahara in the northern part of the African continent (a–e) and distribution of
Tunisian hypersaline systems and oases, where studies were conducted. Examples of (d) hypersaline
environments and (e) desert plants in southern Tunisia (details in their chapter; Dr. Ameur Cherif).
(f) Coastal saltern ponds, Spain; Dr. Rosa María Martínez-Espinosa.
http://taylorandfrancis.com
 Extremophiles
From Biology to Biotechnology

Edited by
Ravi Durvasula
D. V. Subba Rao
CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300
Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742

© 2018 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business

No claim to original U.S. Government works

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International Standard Book Number-13: 978-1-4987-7492-5 (Hardback)

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Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data

Names: Durvasula, Ravi, editor.

Title: Extremophiles : from biology to biotechnology / edited by Ravi Durvasula and
D.V. Subba Rao.
Description: Boca Raton : Taylor & Francis, a CRC title, part of the Taylor &
Francis imprint, a member of the Taylor & Francis Group, the academic division of
T&F Informa plc, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017031972 | ISBN 9781498774925 (hardback : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Extreme environments--Microbiology. | Extreme environments--Biotechnology.
Classification: LCC QR100.9 .E953 2018 | DDC 578.75/8--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017031972

Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at

http://www.taylorandfrancis.com

and the CRC Press Web site at

http://www.crcpress.com
To all researchers on extremophiles,
in particular the best,
for their pioneering contributions.
http://taylorandfrancis.com
 Contents
Preface.............................................................................................................................................. xv
Acknowledgments...........................................................................................................................xvii
About the Editors.............................................................................................................................xxi
About the Contributors................................................................................................................. xxiii

Chapter 1
Extremophiles: Nature’s Amazing Adapters...................................................................................... 1
Ravi Durvasula and D. V. Subba Rao

Chapter 2
Microbial Diversity and Biotechnological Potential of Microorganisms Thriving
in the Deep-Sea Brine Pools............................................................................................................. 19
Alan Barozzi, Francesca Mapelli, Grégoire Michoud, Elena Crotti, Giuseppe Merlino,
Francesco Molinari, Sara Borin, and Daniele Daffonchio

Chapter 3
Extremophile Diversity and Biotechnological Potential from Desert Environments
and Saline Systems of Southern Tunisia........................................................................................... 33
Hanene Cherif, Mohamed Neifar, Habib Chouchane, Asma Soussi, Chadlia Hamdi,
Amel Guesmi, Imen Fhoula, Afef Najjari, Raoudha Ferjani, Mouna Mahjoubi,
Darine El Hidri, Besma Ettoumi, Khaled Elmnasri, Amor Mosbah, Atef Jaouani,
Ahmed Slaheddine Masmoudi, Hadda Imen Ouzari, Abdellatif Boudabous,
and Ameur Cherif

Chapter 4
Culture Studies on a Halophile Dunaliella salina from Tropical Solar Salterns, Bay
of Bengal, India................................................................................................................................. 65
Suman Keerthi

Chapter 5
Heterotrophic Production of Phycocyanin in Galdieria sulphuraria............................................... 87
Niels Thomas Eriksen

Chapter 6
Biology and Applications of Halophilic and Haloalkaliphilic Actinobacteria............................... 103
Sangeeta D. Gohel, Amit K. Sharma, Kruti G. Dangar, Foram J. Thakrar,
and Satya P. Singh

Chapter 7
Adaptation Strategies in Halophilic Bacteria................................................................................. 137
Vikram H. Raval, Hitarth B. Bhatt, and Satya P. Singh

xi
xii CONTENTS

Chapter 8
Deep-Sea Vent Extremophiles: Cultivation, Physiological Characteristics, and Ecological
Significance..................................................................................................................................... 165
Sayaka Mino and Satoshi Nakagawa

Chapter 9
Physiological and Biochemical Adaptations of Psychrophiles....................................................... 185
Amber Grace Teufel and Rachael Marie Morgan-Kiss

Chapter 10
Denitrification in Extreme Environments.......................................................................................209
Javier Torregrosa-Crespo, Julia María Esclapez Espliego, Vanesa Bautista Saiz,
Carmen Pire, Andrew J. Gates, David J. Richardson, Anna Vegara Luque,
Mónica L. Camacho Carrasco, María José Bonete, and Rosa María Martínez-Espinosa

Chapter 11
Extremophile Enzymes and Biotechnology.................................................................................... 227
Julia María Esclapez Espliego, Vanesa Bautista Saiz, Javier Torregrosa-Crespo,
Anna Vegara Luque, Mónica L. Camacho Carrasco, Carmen Pire, María José Bonete,
and Rosa María Martínez-Espinosa

Chapter 12
Carbonic Anhydrases of Extremophilic Microbes and Their Applicability in Mitigating
Global Warming through Carbon Sequestration............................................................................ 249
Himadri Bose and Tulasi Satyanarayana

Chapter 13
Carotenoid Production in Extremophilic Microalgae and Biotechnological Implications............ 277
Sarada Ravi, Vidyashankar Srivatsan, Vikas Singh Chauhan,
Sandeep Narayan Mudliar, Daris P. Simon, and Anila Narayanan

Chapter 14
Secondary Metabolites from Microalgal Extremophiles and Their “Extreme-Loving”
Neighbors........................................................................................................................................ 305
Antje Labes

Chapter 15
Medicinal Utility of Extremophiles................................................................................................ 315
Jane A. Irwin
CONTENTS xiii

Chapter 16
Extremophile Case Studies: Genomic Organization and Optimized Growth................................ 341
Ravi Durvasula and D. V. Subba Rao

Appendix: Culturing Extremophiles: Progress to Date.................................................................. 353

Additional Sources of Information................................................................................................. 375
Glossary.......................................................................................................................................... 379
Index............................................................................................................................................... 389
http://taylorandfrancis.com
 Preface
The Romans used the term extremus to describe something outside the norm, to which MacElroy
(1974) conjoined philos and offered the term extremophile to define organisms—from bacteria
to fishes—that inhabit extreme environments, ranging from the frozen Antarctic to abyssal hot
hydrothermal vents. Extremophiles are nature’s ultimate extreme survivors that live in challeng-
ing habitats under multiple stresses of temperature, light, salinity, and pH. The quote “That which
does not kill us makes us stronger” by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) is
applicable to extremophiles. Studies on aquatic extremophiles have increased exponentially from
21 in 1997 to the current 494; likewise, the numbers of identified extremophiles from all habitats
increased from 279 to 2860 in the same period. Descriptions of extremophiles, including “microbes
that thrive under conditions that would kill other creatures” (Madigan and Marr 1997), “the unseen
majority” (Whitman et al. 1998), “the indestructible” (Copley 1999), “ultimate extreme survivors”
(Rothschild and Mancinelli 2001), “unique microbes that are found in unique environments” (Brock
2012), and “tough microbes produce tough molecules” (Anitori 2012), influenced us most to compile
this collection. An earlier study on the halophiles Chlamydomonas plethora and Nitzschia frustule,
isolated from Kuwait Bay, Arabian Gulf (Subba Rao et al. 2005), and more recent studies on a ther-
mophile microalga, Scenedesmus species, from Soda Dam, New Mexico (Durvasula et al. 2015)
have been the motivation behind this book.
We are inspired by two more recent publications in Nature (Hashimoto et al. 2016; Bittel 2016)
on proteins from an extremotolerant Tardigrade that help human DNA withstand radiation, leading
us to think, “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known” (credited to Carl Sagan).
Of interest is the discovery of rich soil microbial communities dominated by Actinobacteria,
Chloroflexi, Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, and two new phyla AD3 and WPS-2 by Dr. Belinda
C. Ferrari’s team in the frozen expanses of Antarctica. These communities aerobically scavenged
atmospheric H2 and CO at rates sufficient to provide sources of energy and carbon to support their
ecosystem functioning (Ji et al. 2017). This stunning finding “opens up the possibility of atmo-
spheric gases supporting life on other planets.”
This book presents an overview of the recent developments and components of the current
understanding of extremophiles. Deliberately, we have steered away from descriptive taxonomic
studies of these biota. Understanding extremophiles and their utility in biotechnology involves
studying their habitat and their physiological and biochemical adaptations. Mechanisms for the
production of biocatalysts that are functional under extreme conditions remain largely unknown.
There is an unimagined profusion of microbial life with an extraordinary amount of genetic diver-
sity, particularly the Archaea.
Several specialists were invited to present a current review of their understanding of extremo-
philes and to discuss the utility of extremophiles in biotechnology. Each chapter is authored by
an expert or group of experts who combine their own research with literature reviews on adap-
tation mechanisms of extremophiles. These chapters include research on extremophiles from the
Antarctic, the Bay of Bengal, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Tunisia, and deep-sea vents, and on the com-
mercially important extremozymes, carotenoids, bioactive compounds, and secondary metabolites
of medicinal value. The chapter on Dunaliella salina from the Bay of Bengal differs from the rest
because of the nature of its new data. One chapter addresses recent advances in the genomics of
microbiota, gene sequencing, and potential biotechnological applications of extremophiles.
We realize that some topics could not be covered, mainly because the potential contributors
were busy with fieldwork in far-flung Antarctic research stations or otherwise busy with teach-
ing and applying for research grants. To the authors, we are most grateful for their understanding,
immense patience, high level of professional and scholarly efforts, cordial and prompt cooperation,
and valuable contributions to the overall project. Each chapter was reviewed by an internationally

xv
xvi PREFACE

renowned scientist whose comments enhanced the quality of presentation, and we remain most
grateful to them.
This book is quite technical but hopefully quite readable. We believe this book will provide
some insights for undergraduate and graduate students and researchers interested in the structure
and functioning of extremophiles. The much diffused information on culturing extremophiles is
collated and presented. Additional references and a list of books and conference proceedings on
extremophiles are provided. A glossary of specialized terms and a subject index are given at the
end.
We thank Bala T. Durvasula for constant help and patient handling of the manuscripts.

Ravi V. Durvasula
Albuquerque, New Mexico

D. V. Subba Rao
Riverview, Florida

REFERENCES

Anitori, R.P., ed. 2012. Extremophiles, Microbiology and Biotechnology. Norfolk, UK: Caister Academic
Press.
Brock, T.D. 2012. Thermophilic Microorganisms and Life at High Temperatures. New York: Springer.
Copley, J. 1999. Indestructible. New Sci 164: 45–46.
Durvasula, R., Hurwitz, I., Fieck, A. et al. 2015. Culture, growth, pigments and lipid content of Scenedesmus
species, an extremophile microalga from Soda Dam, New Mexico in wastewater. Algal Res 10: 128–133.
Hashimoto, T., Horikawa, D.D., and Kunieda, T. 2016. Extremotolerant tardigrade genome and improved
radiotolerance of human cultured cells by tardigrade-unique protein. Nat Commun 7: 12808.
Ji, M., Greening, C., Vanwonterghem, I. et al. 2017. Atmospheric trace gases support primary production in
Antarctic desert surface soil. Nature doi:10.1038/nature25014.
MacElroy, R.D. 1974. Some comments on the evolution of extremophiles. Biosystems 5: 74–75.
Madigan, M.T. and Marr, B.L. 1997. Extremophiles, Sci. American 276: 66–71.
Rothschild, L.J. and Mancinelli, R.L. 2001. Life in extreme environments. Nature 409: 1092–1101.
Subba Rao, D.V., Pan, Y. and Al-Yamani, F. 2005. Growth, and photosynthetic rates of Chalmydomonas
plethora and Nitzschia frustula cultures isolated from Kuwait Bay, Arabian Gulf and their potential as
live algal food for tropical mariculture. Mar Ecol 26: 63–71.
Whitman, W.B., Coleman, D.C. and Wiebe, W.J. 1998. Prokaryotes: The unseen majority. Proc Natl Acad Sci
USA 95: 6578–6583.
 Acknowledgments
The editors are most grateful to the contributors of the chapters and for meeting requirements from
time to time despite their heavy teaching and research workload. The chapters were first reviewed
by the editors and then submitted to external reviewers. We remain most grateful to the following
conscientious reviewers, who have selflessly given of their time by providing constructive com-
ments on the various chapters, and thus helped in producing this book.
To the authors, we are most grateful for their understanding, immense patience, high level of
professional and scholarly efforts, cordial and prompt cooperation, and valuable contributions to
the overall project. Each chapter was reviewed by an internationally renowned scientist whose com-
ments enhanced the quality of presentation, and we remain most grateful to them.
For their invitation to us to prepare this volume, and for their excellent cooperation and immense
patience throughout the production of this book, we thank John Sulzycki and Jennifer Blaise, CRC
Publisher and his editorial assistant in Boca Raton, Florida.
With pleasure, we thank Adel Rosario for her meticulous proof corrections.

Dr. Elizaveta Bonch-Osmolovskaya

Vinogradsky Institute of Microbiology
Russian Academy of Sciences
Moscow, Russia

Dr. Daniele Daffonchio

Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering Division
KAUST, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
Thuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Dr. Subrata K. Das

Functional Genomics of Extremophiles
Institute of Life Sciences
Nalco Square, Bhubaneswar, India

Dr. Kevin G. Devine

Pharmaceutical Sciences
London Metropolitan University
London, United Kingdom

Dr. Ivy Hurwitz

Department of Internal Medicine
Center for Global Health
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, New Mexico

Dr. Krishnamurthi Kannan

Environmental Health Division
CSIR–National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-NEERI)
Nehru Marg, Nagpur, India

Dr. Balasaheb Kapadnis

Functional Genomics of Extremophiles
Institute of Life Sciences
Nalco Square, Bhubaneswar, India

xvii
xviii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Dr. Sunil K. Khare

Biochemistry Enzyme and Microbial Biochemistry
Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi
Hauz-Khas, New Delhi, India

Dr. Bhavdish Narain Johri

Department of Biotechnology
Barkatullah University
Bhopal, India

Dr. Izabela Michalak

Wrocław University of Technology
Department of Advanced Material Technologies
Wrocław, Poland

Dr. Noura Raddadi

Industrial and Environmental Biotechnologies Research Unit
University of Bologna
Bologna, Italy

Dr. Sarada Ravi

Plant Cell Biotechnology Department
CSIR–Central Food Technological Research Institute
Mysore, India

Dr. Marlis Reich

Molecular Ecology Group
University of Bremen
Bremen, Germany

Dr. Tulasi Satyanarayana

Department of Microbiology
University of Delhi South Campus
New Delhi, India

Dr. G. Tsiamis
Environmental Microbiology
Department of Environmental and Natural Resources Management
University of Patras
Agrinio, Greece

Dr. José Maria Vega

Plant Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Universidad de Sevilla
Sevilla, Spain

Dr. Kenneth Wilson

Department of Biology
University of Saskatchewan
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xix

PHOTO CREDITS

Drs. Amber G. Teufel and Rachael M. Morgan-Kiss: Sampling in the Antarctic.

Frontispiece: Biota

Dr. Mino Sayaka and Dr. Satoshi Nakagawa: (a) Baslnearium and (b) Thermotomaculam—
hydrothermal vents.
Dr. Rosa María Martínez-Espinosa: (c) Haloferax mediterranei and colonies of halophilic micro-
organisms isolated from salt water (Santa Pola).
Dr. Vanesa Bautista Saiz: (d) Haloferax mediterranei cells.
Dr. Wei Li, Montana University: Scanning electron microscopy images of (e) Gymnodinium sp.
and (f) Brachiomonas sp. isolated from Lake Bonney within the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica.

Drs. Sylvia Herter and David E. Gilbert, DOE Joint Genome Institute, Walnut Creek, California,
for Chloroflexux aurantiacus.

Dr. Ameur Cherif: (a–c) The desert terrain of Sahara in the northern part of the African continent.
(d) Example of hypersaline environments in southern Tunisia. (e) Example of desert plants in south-
ern Tunisia (details in their chapter; Dr. Amur Cherif). (f) Coastal saltern ponds, Spain; Dr. Rosa
Maria Martinez-Espinosa.
Examples of hypersaline environments in southern Tunisia.
Examples of desert plants in southern Tunisia.
Examples of microorganisms isolated from different saline systems of Tunisia.
Examples of desert insects recovered from desert areas in southern Tunisia.

Dr. Suman Keerthi: Dunaliella salina from Bay of Bengal salterns.

http://taylorandfrancis.com
 About the Editors
Dr. Ravi Durvasula, a physician trained in infectious diseases at Yale University, is a professor of med-
icine and the director of the Global Health Center at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine.
While at Yale, he developed a novel molecular approach, termed paratransgenesis, which serves as a
“Trojan horse” approach to control disease transmission. Dr. Durvasula has been applying para-
trangenic strategies with the goal of reducing the transmission of a spectrum of arthropod-borne
diseases, including leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, and agricultural diseases, such as Pierce’s dis-
ease. He has worked collaboratively in many regions of the world, including Tunisia, India, Brazil,
Argentina, the United Kingdom, and Guatemala. He has published more than 60 peer-reviewed
scientific publications and reports and coedited two books, Dynamic Models of Infectious Diseases
(Springer 2013) and Pathogenesis of Leishmaniasis (Springer 2014). Dr. Durvasula has applied the
paratransgenesis strategy to commercial aquaculture to deploy molecules that interfere with the
transmission cycles of infectious pathogens in shrimp. Through applications that involve genetically
engineered cyanobacteria and other unicellular green algae, Dr. Durvasula has been engaged in the
study of extremophiles from various locations in the world.

Dr. D.V. Subba Rao is a biological oceanographer and formerly an emeritus scientist at the Bedford
Institute of Oceanography, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. He is currently with the Center for Global
Health, Department of Medicine, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM. His research and
teaching activities have engaged him at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research
Organisation, Australia; Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland; the University of New
Mexico, Albuquerque; and the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, Kuwait and India. He has
published 130 papers in peer-reviewed journals on phytoplankton ecology; the physiological ecol-
ogy of primary production; picoplankton; the recurrence of red tides; phycotoxin episodes; the
impact of ballast water introductions, tsunamis, and mega engineering projects on coastal marine
environments; and the biotechnological utility of microalgae. Besides publishing 40 technical
reports, Dr. Rao has edited two volumes of Oceanographic Science in Developing Countries (1990),
Present and Future of Oceanographic Programs in Developing Countries (1996), Pelagic Ecology
Methodology (2002), two volumes of Algal Cultures, Analogues of Blooms and Applications (2006),
and The Alga Dunaliella: Biodiversity, Physiology, Genomics and Biotechnology (2009).

xxi
http://taylorandfrancis.com
 About the Contributors

Dr. Alan Barozzi earned a master’s degree in biology from the University of Milan–Bicocca, Italy,
in 2014. His thesis work focused on the characterization of the intestinal bacterial community asso-
ciated with the beetle Psacothea hilaris hilaris, a pest insect native to China, now spreading also
in Europe, in order to identify a strategy to counteract the parasitic activity of this insect affecting
his primary symbionts. Since January 2015, he has been a PhD student in marine science at the
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He is currently
with the Department of Food, Environmental and Nutritional Sciences, University of Milan, Milan,
Italy. His research is focused on the investigation of microbial communities that thrive in extreme
environments, with particular interest in the Red Sea deep hypersaline anoxic basins, with the main
aim of investigating the microbial diversity harbored in the brine–seawater interfaces and along the
brine bodies.

Hitarth B. Bhatt is currently pursuing his doctoral research in microbiology under the supervision
of Prof. Satya P. Singh at UGC-CAS Department of Biosciences, Saurashtra University, Rajkot,
India. He has been awarded a meritorious fellowship from the University Grants Commission,
India, under the Basic Science Research Scheme. He is working on molecular and enzymatic diver-
sity of haloalkaliphilic bacteria from the saline desert of Little Rann of Kutch. His research area
also covers cloning, overexpression, and characterization of recombinant enzymes from haloalka-
liphilic bacteria. He has expertise in polyphasic taxonomy and microbial systematics of bacteria.
He has published one research paper in a refereed journal and contributed one invited chapter in an
edited book of a reputed publisher.

Dr. María José Bonete is a biochemist. She received a licenciado degree (equivalent to the MS
degree) in chemistry from the Universidad de Valencia, Spain, in 1977 and a PhD degree in science
from the Universidad de Murcia, Spain, in 1982. She spent a research period at the University of Bath,
United Kingdom. She is a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology in the Departamento de
Agroquímica y Bioquímica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Alicante, Spain. Her main research
activities include halophilic proteins, the molecular biology of halophiles, and nitrogen metabolism
and its regulation. She is the leader of the group “Biotechnology of Extremophiles.” The main topic of
the group is the nitrogen cycle in haloarchaea and its application for the bioremediation and production
of biomolecules. She is a member of the Biochemical Society, Spanish Society for Biochemistry and
Molecular Biology, Sociedad Española de Biotecnología, and small and medium enterprises (SMEs),
and an editorial board member for Archaea. She also serves as a reviewer internationally for 6 inter-
national granting agencies and 25 journals.

Dr. Sara Borin graduated with a degree in food science in 2001 and obtained a PhD in pesticide
chemistry, biochemistry, and ecology from the University of Milan, Italy, completing her scientific
training in several European laboratories as a leader in the field of environmental microbiology.
Since 2008 Sara Borin has been an associate professor of agriculture microbiology and biotechnol-
ogy at the Department of Food, Environmental and Nutritional Sciences (DeFENS), University of
Milan. She is studying the molecular ecology of bacteria applied to the study of environmental bac-
terial communities, how they contribute to ecosystem functioning, and how they can be exploited in
sustainable environmental biotechnologies, emphasizing: (1) bioremediation and energy, (2) plant
microbiota and plant growth promotion, (3) ecosystem functioning in extreme environments, and
(4) insect microbiota.

xxiii
xxiv ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS

Himadri Bose, after completing his MSc in microbiology from Vellore Institute of Technology,
Tamil Nadu, India, joined the Department of Microbiology, University of Delhi for his PhD to work
on the utility of carbonic anhydrase of the bacterium Aeribacillus pallidus in carbon sequestration
in 2013 under the supervision of Prof. T. Satyanarayana. During this period, he isolated alkaliphilic
and moderately thermophilic bacteria from Indian hot water springs and sediment samples, screened
for carbonic anhydrases, and selected A. pallidus, isolated from hot water springs of Pepariya of
Madhya Pradesh state of India, for detailed investigation. Carbonic anhydrase was produced by this
bacterium, which was purified and characterized. He has also attempted to clone and express the
gene encoding γ-carbonic anhydrase in Escherichia coli. There was good expression, but the activ-
ity could not be detected. He is currently making an effort to clone and express carbonic anhydrase
in active form. He has published three papers in Bioprocess and Biosystems Engineering, Energy &
Fuels, and Environmental Science & Pollution Research; a review in Frontiers in Microbiology;
and an article in Botanica. He received his PhD in October 2017 for his work on carbon sequestra-
tion. He has finished his PhD in 2017 and is now pursuing his postdoctoral research at Department
of Biotechnology IIT Kharagpur, India.

Dr. Abdellatif Boudabous earned a third cycle doctorate (PhD in 1978) and a state doctorate
(1983) on the taxonomy, phylogeny, and ecology of marine and terrestrial Bacillus species, both
from Provence University, Luminy, Marseille, France. He has developed a team working on micro-
bial ecology, taxonomy, phylogeny, and bacterial biochemistry. Several groups and bacteriological
genera and species of Bacillus, Frankia, Geodermatophilus, Lactobacillus, and Lactococcus are
studied with members of the Laboratory of Microorganisms and Active Biomolecules (LMBA),
Faculty of Sciences, University of Tunis El Manar, Tunisia. For 17 years, the team has also devel-
oped studies on the antibiotic resistance of several pathogens, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus
aureus, Enterococcus, Salmonella, and Pseudomonas. In the last 20 years, the team has been inter-
ested in microbes in extreme environments, with European partners and universities. A large and
long cooperation has been developed with several universities, Milan (Italy), Lyon 1 (France), La
Rioja (Spain), New Hampshire (United States), Ioannina and Patras (Greece), and the University of
Stif (Algeria). These studies were published in about 170 articles with Professor Boudabous, and up
to 400 papers were realized by others members of the LMBA, Faculty of Sciences, University of
Tunis El Manar. In 1995, Professor Boudabous also created and coordinated, with different institu-
tions and members of the laboratory, a third cycle formation (master’s and PhD) in microbiology
and molecular epidemiology at Tunis El Manar University (1995–2017). Besides participating in
several scientific committees, in 2013 Professor Boudabous was appointed president of the Tunisian
National Commission for the Evaluation of Scientific Activities.

Dr. Mónica L. Camacho Carrasco is senior lecturer of biochemistry and molecular biology, Faculty
of Sciences, University of Tunis, Tunisia. She is also currently affiliated with the Departamento
de Agroquímica y Bioquímica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Alicante, Alicante, Spain.
She has participated in many research projects related to halophilic archaea since 1984. Her two
present projects, granted by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, are BIO2013-42921-P
(Excellence) and CTM2013-43147-R (Challenges). She has published some papers in specialized
international journals since 1986, and she has participated in national and international congresses
since 1985, within subjects associated with her research activity. She had a postdoctoral stay at the
University of Bath, United Kingdom, for a full year (1992), working with proteins of archaea. She
has directed several doctoral theses and research works. She has participated in the cooperation
with various national and international research groups.

Dr. Vikas Singh Chauhan is working as a principal scientist at Plant Cell Biotechnology, Council
of Scientific and Industrial Research–Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore,
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS xxv

India. He possesses a doctoral degree in bioscience, and microalgal biotechnology is his primary
area of research interest. He was involved in setting up one of India’s largest Spirulina production
plants at Nanjangud. He has also been involved in the commercialization of the knowledge base of
the institute. He is actively involved in guiding postgraduate and doctoral students. He has published
24 research papers.

Dr. Ameur Cherif graduated with a degree in natural sciences from the Faculty of Sciences of
Tunis, University of Tunis El Manar, Tunisia, in June 1995. Following his master’s degree in genet-
ics and molecular biology in 1997, he obtained a PhD degree in microbiology in 2001. He was
recruited as assistant in 2001 and then maître assistant. He obtained his Habilitation Universitaire,
HDR, in 2007, and was appointed associate professor in microbiology at the Higher Institute for
Biotechnology of Sidi Thabet (ISBST), University of Manouba, Tunisia, where he was elected twice
as director of the institute (2010–2014). He is the head of the research laboratory of Biotechnology
and Bio-Geo Resources Valorization at the ISBST. In December 2012, he was promoted as full
professor in the ISBST. His current research activities focus on several aspects of molecular micro-
bial ecology and biotechnology; these include (1) the phylogeny and ecology of extremophilic
microbes, particularly from deserts, marine sediments, and saline systems (Chott and Sebkha);
(2) the microbial ecology of symbionts and commensal and pathogen microbiota in different hosts,
and development of the symbiotic biological control approach (arthropods); and (3) biotechnological
applications of active biomolecules, such as bacteriocins, antibiotics, esterase, several enzymes, and
biosurfactants, and microbial resource management for plant growth promotion and bioremedia-
tion. Professor Cherif represented Tunisia in European Cost Action FA 0701; was a partner member
in several EU FP7, Tempus, Erasmus, H2020, and bilateral projects; and serves on various review
and editorial committees. In his research career, Professor Cherif has published more than 70 peer-
reviewed articles and several book chapters.

Dr. Hanene Cherif graduated with a degree in natural sciences from the Faculty of Sciences of
Tunis (FST), University of Tunis El Manar, Tunisia, in June 1998. Following her master’s degree
in microbiology in 2001, she obtained her PhD degree in microbiology in 2009. She joined the
Laboratory of Microorganisms and Active Biomolecules at the FST as a postdoctoral researcher
for three years in the ambit of EU-FP7 project BIODESERT (grant no. 245746) (2010–2012). She
continued her work in the Laboratory of Biotechnology and Bio-Geo Resources Valorization at the
Higher Institute for Biotechnology of Sidi Thabet, University of Manouba, Tunisia, as a postdoc
before she won a second postdoctoral position in the H2020 MADFORWATER project in April
2017. Her current work focuses on two aspects: (1) microbial diversity in extreme environments and
(2) microbial resource management for plant growth promotion.

Dr. Habib Chouchane graduated with a degree in natural sciences from the Faculty of Sciences
of Tunis, University of Tunis El Manar, Tunisia, in June 1994. From 1994 to 2007, he was recruited
as a secondary school teacher of natural sciences. He obtained his master’s degree in 2005 and
his PhD degree in 2010 in biology from the University of Toulouse. He was recruited as an assis-
tant in 2007 at the University of Gafsa, and then assistant professor at the Higher Institute for
Biotechnology of Sidi Thabet, University of Manouba, Tunisia, in 2013, where he joined the
research laboratory Biotechnology and Bio-Geo Resources Valorization. His main research activi-
ties focus on microbial biopolymers with valuable applications in bioremediation and health. His
current collaborations include the WE-MET project (Sustainable Wastewater Treatment Coupled
to Energy Recovery with Microbial Electrochemical Technologies) and the MADFORWATER
project (Development and Application of Integrated Technological and Management Solutions for
Wastewater Treatment and Efficient Reuse in Agriculture Tailored to the Needs of Mediterranean
African Countries).
xxvi ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS

Dr. Elena Crotti has been an assistant professor at the Department of Food, Environmental and
Nutritional Sciences, University of Milan, Italy, since December 2013. Crotti earned her PhD in
chemistry, biochemistry, and ecology of pesticides from the University of Milan in 2009. After
obtaining her PhD, she worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Milan. Her research
interests are in the fields of microbial ecology and biotechnology, applied to marine ecosystems and
microbe–insect associations.

Dr. Daniele Daffonchio has been a professor of bioscience at the King Abdullah University of
Science and Technology (KAUST), Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering
Division, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, since April 2014. Before KAUST, Daffonchio was a pro-
fessor of microbial systems biotechnology at the Department of Food, Environmental and
Nutritional Sciences (November 2010–March 2014) and associate professor at DiSTAM (March
2002–October 2010), University of Milan, Italy. From November 1998 to October 1999, he was
an adjunct professor of industrial microbiology at the University of Urbino, Fano, Italy, and
from November 1995 to February 2002, he was an assistant professor at DiSTAM, University of
Milan. Daffonchio initiated his research career in 1994 as a postdoctoral scientist at the LabMet,
University of Gent, Belgium, after getting a PhD in Chemistry, biochemistry, and ecology of
pesticides at the University of Milan in 1993. His research interests are in the microbial ecology
and biotechnology of complex ecosystems in conventional and extreme aquatic and terrestrial
habitats. The actual research deals with the study and exploitation of extremophile microorgan-
isms and microbial communities along the water stress continuity from the Arabian Desert to the
depth of the brine pools in the Red Sea.

Kruti G. Dangar is pursuing her PhD in biotechnology in the UGC-CAS Department of Biosciences,
Saurashtra University, Rajkot, Gujarat, India, under the supervision of Prof. Satya P. Singh. She
has been awarded a research project under the Women Scientist Scheme A by the Department of
Sciences and Technology, New Delhi, India. She is working on the molecular diversity, metagenom-
ics, and biotechnological aspects of the haloalkaliphilic actinomycetes of the coastal regions of the
Gujarat.

Dr. Ravi Durvasula, a physician trained in infectious diseases at Yale University, is a professor of
medicine and the director of the Global Health Center, Department of Medicine at the University
of New Mexico School of Medicine. While at Yale, he developed a novel molecular approach,
termed paratransgenesis, which serves as a “Trojan horse” approach to control disease transmission.
Dr. Durvasula has been applying paratrangenic strategies with the goal of reducing the transmission
of a spectrum of arthropod-borne diseases, including leishmaniasis, Chagas, disease, and agricul-
tural diseases, such as Pierce’s disease. He has worked collaboratively in many regions of the world,
including Tunisia, India, Brazil, Argentina, the United Kingdom, and Guatemala. He has published
more than 60 peer-reviewed scientific publications and reports and coedited two books, Dynamic
Models of Infectious Diseases (Springer 2013) and Pathogenesis of Leishmaniasis (Springer 2014).
Dr. Durvasula has applied the paratransgenesis strategy to commercial aquaculture to deploy
molecules that interfere with the transmission cycles of infectious pathogens in shrimp. Through
applications that involve genetically engineered cyanobacteria and other unicellular green algae,
Dr. Durvasula has been engaged in the study of extremophiles from various locations in the world.

Darine El Hidri is a PhD student in microbiology in the Laboratory of Biotechnology and Bio-
Geo Resources Valorization at the Higher Institute of Biotechnology of Sidi Thabet, Tunisia. She
obtained a four-year license in life and earth sciences (2005) and a master’s degree of hydrobiol-
ogy (2009) from the Faculty of Sciences of Bizerte, University of Carthage, Tunisia. Her current
research activities focus on (1) the diversity and phylogeny of extremophilic bacteria from arid
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS xxvii

(oasis) and saline systems (Chott and Sebkha), and (2) the adaptation and ecology of the haloalkali-
philic bacterium suspected through genome analyses.

Khaled Elmnasri graduated with a degree in life and earth sciences from the Faculty of Sciences
of Bizerte, University of Carthage, Tunisia, in August 2005. In 2011, he obtained a master’s degree
in hydrobiology devoted to the microbial community of scorpions. His current research activities
focus on arthropod–bacteria symbiosis (commensal and pathogen) and biological pest control,
at the Biotechnology and Bio-Geo Resources Valorization Laboratory in the Higher Institute of
Biotechnology of Sidi Thabet, Tunisia.

Dr. Niels Thomas Eriksen has an MSc in biology from Odense University, Denmark (1995), and
a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Southern Denmark (1998). Since 1999, he has been
employed at Aalborg University, Denmark, and is presently an associate professor in bioprocess
technology at the Department of Chemistry and Bioscience and head of the study board in chemis-
try, biotechnology, and environmental engineering. His research interests include bioprocess tech-
nology and applied microbiology in general, and he has worked with the cultivation and utilization
of bacteria, cyanobacteria, yeast, filamentous fungi, eukaryote microalgae, and invertebrates. He
has always had a particular interest in the cultivation of phototrophic and heterotrophic microalgae.

Dr. Julia María Esclapez Espliego works in the area of biochemistry at the Departamento de
Agroquímica y Bioquímica, Facultad de Ciencias, University of Alicante, Spain. She obtained her
degree in biology in 1999, achieving two academic achievement awards. In 2004, she obtained a PhD
in biology with a European Doctor Mention and Extraordinary Award Doctorate. She has achieved
predoctoral and postdoctoral short-term fellowships. Her main areas of research are based on the
homologous and heterologous expression of halophilic proteins, the purification and characterization
of novel halophilic proteins, the crystallization and resolution of protein structures, and transcriptional
studies of genes involved in the metabolism of nitrogen and carbon. She has published several papers
in journals with a high impact factor, such as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of
the United States of America, and has much experience in teaching biochemistry.

Dr. Besma Ettoumi graduated with a degree in natural sciences from the Faculty of Sciences of
Tunis, University of Tunis El Manar, Tunisia, in 2001. She obtained her master’s degree (in April
2004) and her PhD (in December 2009) working on molecular and enzymatic typing of species of
the Bacillus cereus group and phylogenetic diversity and activities of marine bacteria, respectively.
She obtained a six-month postdoctoral position in the European project BIODESERT, a two-year
postdoctoral position in the MetalBiorec Italian Project, and a one-year position in the Research
and Technological Innovation Department of ENI—a company involved in exploration and pro-
duction, gas, and power in Tunisia. She is currently with the Higher Institute of Biotechnology,
Biotechnology and Bio-Geo Resources Valorization, University of Manouba, Biotechnopole Sidi
Thabet, Ariana, Tunisia. Dr. Ettoumi has collaborated on several research topics, such as the phy-
logeny of marine bacteria and their biotechnological potential as biosurfactant producers, and the
diversity of bacteria involved in growth promotion under stress conditions.

Dr. Raoudha Ferjani is a postdoctoral researcher within the frame of the MADFORWATER
project (Development and Application of Integrated Technological and Management Solutions for
Wastewater Treatment and Efficient Reuse in Agriculture Tailored to the Needs of Mediterranean
African Countries). She obtained a four-year license in life sciences in June 2009, a master’s
degree of microbiology in 2011, and a PhD degree in microbiology in 2016, from the Faculty of
Sciences of Tunis, University of Tunis El Manar, Tunisia. She is currently with the Laboratory
of Microorganisms and Active Biomolecules, Faculty of Sciences of Tunis, University of Tunis
xxviii ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS

El Manar. In her master’s and PhD degrees, she worked on the framework of the BIODESERT
project (Biotechnology from Desert Microbial Extremophiles for Supporting Agriculture Research
Potential in Tunisia and Southern Europe). The current research activities of Dr. Ferjani focus on
microbial resources management for plant growth promotion and phytoremediation.

Dr. Imen Fhoula is a Tunisian microbiologist. She graduated with a degree in natural sciences
from the Faculty of Sciences of Tunis, University of Tunis El Manar, Tunisia, in June 2005. She is
currently with the Laboratory of Microorganisms and Active Biomolecules, Faculty of Sciences of
Tunis, University of Tunis El Manar. She received her master’s degree in microbiology in 2008 and
obtained her PhD degree in microbiology in 2014. Her scientific interests focus on several aspects of
molecular microbial ecology; systematic, technological, and probiotic properties; and their potential
applications for organisms (human, animals, and plants). This includes the phylogeny and ecology
of lactic acid bacteria, particularly from rhizospheres, plants, feces, wheat, and insects of hard envi-
ronments (saline systems); the microbial ecology of arthropod symbionts; prevalence and acquired
antibiotic resistance; the biotechnological applications of active biomolecules, such as bacteriocins,
esterase, autolysine, and several enzymes; quality sourdough bread; and antiproliferative activity
against several types of cancer cells. Dr. Fhoula has published several peer-reviewed papers.

Dr. Andrew J. Gates joined the School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Sciences, University
of East Anglia, Norwich, UK, as a lecturer in 2011. He is a member of the molecular microbiol-
ogy theme and the Centre for Molecular and Structural Biochemistry. Gates holds a BSc (Hons)
degree in molecular biology from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Newcastle upon
Tyne, United Kingdom, and a PhD in chemistry from the University of East Anglia. Prior to his
appointment within the School of Biological Sciences, he worked with Prof. David Richardson as a
senior postdoctoral research associate, which initiated his interest in the genetics and biochemistry
of assimilatory nitrate reduction, and nitrogen and iron respiratory systems in bacteria.

Dr. Sangeeta D. Gohel is an assistant professor in the UGC-CAS Department of Biosciences,

Saurashtra University, Rajkot, Gujarat, India. She completed her MSc and PhD degrees in micro-
biology from the same department. She received the UGC Research Fellowship in Sciences for
Meritorious Students during her PhD. She is a recipient of a CSIR-SRF (direct) and UGC Research
Associateship. Dr. Gohel has completed an UGC-sponsored start-up research project on molecular
cloning, expression, and characterization of extracellular serine proteases. Currently, she is work-
ing on the DST-SERB project Rhizospheric Microbes and Soil Metagenome, and another major
research project sponsored by the Internal Quality Assurance Cell, Saurashtra University, Rajkot,
India. She has published her work in five reputed international journals as a first author and con-
tributed seven book chapters. She has presented her work in 30 international and national confer-
ences, and many of her presentations were adjudged the best. Her h-index and citations are 6 and 91,
respectively, with a cumulative impact factor of 12. Dr. Gohel has been working on the molecular
phylogeny and diversity of haloalkaliphilic actinomycetes; extremozyme purification and character-
ization; the cloning, expression, and structure function analysis of enzymes; antimicrobial activity
profiling; and the screening of rhizospheric microbes and metagenomics from various saline habi-
tats of the Gujarat Coast, India.

Amel Guesmi is a PhD student in microbiology in the Laboratory of Biotechnology and Bio-
Geo Resources Valorization at the Higher Institute of Biotechnology of Sidi Thabet, University
of Manouba, Tunisia. She graduated with a degree in life and earth sciences from the Faculty
of Sciences of Tunis, University of Tunis El Manar, Tunisia, in 2003. She is currently with the
Laboratory of Microorganisms and Active Biomolecules, Faculty of Sciences of Tunis, University
of Tunis El Manar. She obtained her master’s degree in microbiology in 2006 from the University of
Another random document with
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European War. Their Anglia Irridenta lay in the football fields and
factories, the music-halls and seaside excursions that they talked of,
and now hoped to see once again. Their Alsace Lorraine lay in the
skilled occupations or soft jobs that women or neutrals had invaded.
When he listened to their talk in billets, and occasionally caught
some real glimpse of them, between their mouth-organ concerts, and
their everlasting gamble at cards, it was of the keen Trades Unionists
who were already talking of purging this, that or the other skilled
industry from all the non-union elements that had been allowed to
flow into it, behind their backs, while they were chasing Fritz across
this b—— country, where Belgium, France, or Luxembourg were
simply “billets,” and the goal was “dear old Blighty”—behind them,
over the Channel, not in front, still ringed about by German trenches.
There were elements of hesitation, he noticed, in all the Allies. The
French felt they had done much too much, and wanted to be back at
their farms and little shops. The Belgians wanted to march into their
country without the tragic necessity of knocking flat all its solidly built,
hard-working little towns. All three nations shared the inevitable
sense that grew upon men with the passage of years, of the
mechanical nature of the War. Thus the cavalry, where the greatest
proportion of regular soldiers lingered, were still keen on exploiting
their one chance. The artillery, buoyed up by the facilities that their
command of transport gave them, fired away their now all abundant
ammunition. The machine gunners, containing some proportion of
picked men, and able to feel that they could easily produce some
noticeable effect with their weapon, were still game. But the mass of
infantry, tired enough of the bomb and the rifle, and probably unfitted
by generations of peace, for any effective use of the bayonet, were
rapidly adopting the attitude, unexpressed as always with the
humbler Englishman, of “Let the gunners go on if they like. We don’t
mind!”
On a grey November morning, Dormer went to his billet in the suburb
of a manufacturing town. It was the most English place he had set
eyes on in all his three years. It was not really suburban, very nearly,
not quite. There was no garden before the door, it was close to the
factories and workshops where the wealth that had built it was made,
instead of being removed a decent mile or so. In fact, it just lacked
the proper pretentiousness. Its owner had made money and was not
in the least ashamed of admitting it, was rather prone to display the
fact and his house looked like it. It was a villa, not a château. It was
the home of a successful manufacturer who did not want in the least
to be taken for a country gentleman. He, poor fellow, had been called
up and promptly killed, and his home, with its stained-glass windows,
expensive draping and papering, clumsy if efficient sanitation, was
inhabited only by his widow.
Dormer thought there could not be in the world any person so utterly
beaten. Broken-hearted, exposed during four years to considerable
bodily privation, being in the occupied area, she was no
Mademoiselle Vanderlynden of the Army zone that Dormer knew,
making a bold front against things. She was a delicate—had been
probably a pretty woman—but it was not from any of her half-audible
monosyllabic replies that Dormer was able to discover to what sort of
a country he had come. A little farther down the street was the
factory, long gutted by the Germans and used as a forage store,
where his company were billeted. The old caretaker in the time-
keeper’s cottage told Dormer all that was necessary, and left him
astonished at the moderation of tone and statement, compared with
the accounts of German occupation given by the Propagandist
Press. Possibly, it was because he addressed the old man in French
—or because he had never parted with his English middle-class
manners—or because the old fellow was nearly wild with delight at
being liberated. This was what Dormer heard:
“Enter, my Captain. It is a Captain, is it not, with three stars? The
insignia of Charles Martell!” (Here wife and daughter joined in the
laugh at what was obviously one of the best jokes in father’s
repertory.) “You will find that the Bosches removed everything, but
that makes less difficulty in the workshop. You have only to divide
the floor space between your men. I know. I was a corporal in the
War of ’Seventy. Ah! a bad business, that, but nothing to what we
have now supported. You will do well to make a recommendation to
your men not to drink the water of the cistern. The Bosches have
made beastliness therein. Ah! You have your own watercart? That is
well done, much better than we others used to have, in Algeria. It is
always wise to provide against the simple soldier, his thoughts have
no connection. You say you are accustomed to Germans and their
mannerisms? I do not wonder. We too, as you may judge, have had
cause to study them. I will tell you this, my Captain, the German is
no worse than any other man, but he has this mania for Deutschland
über Alles. It comes from having been a little people and weak, and
so often conquered by us others. So that to give him some idea of
himself, since he cannot invent a culture like us other French, he
must go to put all above below, and make a glory of having a worse
one. That shows itself in his three great faults—he has no sentiment
of private property—what is others’, is his. He must be dirtier than a
dog in his habits—witness our court-yard—and he has to make
himself more brute than he really is. You see, therefore, he has
stripped the factory, and even our little lodging, down to my
daughter’s sewing-machine, and the conjugal bed of mother and
myself. You see also, that we had our grandchildren, our dog Azor,
our cat Titi. Now many of the Bosches who lodged here were
certainly married and had their little ones and domestic animals. Yet
if they found a child or a beast playing in the entry when they entered
or left, they must give a kick of the foot, a cut with the riding-whip.
Not from bad thoughts, I assure you. It is in their code, as it is in that
of us others, English and French, to lift the hat, to make a salutation.
The officers are the worst, because in them the code is stronger. For
the German simple soldier, I have respect. They sang like angels!”
(Here the old man quavered out the first bars of:
“Ein feste Bourg ist unser Gott.”)
Dormer wanted to get away, but could scarcely forbear to listen
when the daughter broke in:
“But, Papa, recount to the officer the droll trick you played upon
those who came to demolish the factory!”
“Ah, yes. Place yourself upon a chair, my officer, and I will tell you
that. Figure to yourself that these Bosches, as I have explained,
were not so bad as one says in the papers. They had orders to do it.
I know what it is. I have had orders, in Algeria, to shoot Arabs. It was
not my dream, but I did it. I will explain to you this.
“It was the day on which they lost the ridge. One heard the English
guns, nearer and nearer. Already there were no troops in the factory,
nothing but machine gunners, always retreating. A party of three
came here with machinery in a box. One knew them slightly, since
they also had billeted here. They were not dirty types; on the
contrary, honest people. Sapper-miners, they were; but this time one
saw well that they had something they did not wish to say. They
deposit their box and proceed to render account of the place. They
spoke low, and since we have found it better to avoid all appearance
of wishing to know their affairs, we did not follow them. Only, my
daughter had a presentiment. Woman, you know, my officer, it is
sometimes very subtle. She put it in her head that these would blow
up the factory. She was so sure that I lifted the cover of their box and
looked in. It was an electric battery and some liquids in phials. I had
no time to lose. I placed myself at the gate and ran as fast as I can to
where they were, in the big workshop. I am already aged more than
sixty. My days for the race are over. Given also that I was
experiencing terrible sentiments—for you see, while we keep the
factory there is some hope we may be able to work when the War is
finished, but if it is blown up, what shall we others go and do—I was
all in a palpitation, by the time I reached them. I cried: ‘There they
go!’
“‘Who goes?’ they asked.
“‘The cavalry,’ I cried.
“They ran to the entry, and seeing no one, they feared that they were
already surrounded. I saw them serpentine themselves from one
doorway to another all down the street. The moment they were lost
to sight I flung their box into the big sewer!”

Dormer billeted his company in the factory. He did not fear shell-fire
that night. He himself slept in a bed at the villa. It was the first time
he had left the night guard to a junior officer. In the morning, he
paraded his company, and proceeded, according to plan, to await
the order to move. The days were long gone by when a battalion
was a recognizable entity, with a Mess at which all the officers saw
each other once a day. Depleted to form Machine Gun Companies,
the truncated battalions of the end of the War usually worked by
separate companies, moving independently. There was some
desultory firing in front, but his own posts had seen and heard
nothing of the enemy. About nine he sent a runner to see if his
orders had miscarried. Reply came, stand to, and await
developments. He let his men sit on the pavement, and himself
stood at the head of the column, talking with the two youngsters who
commanded platoons under him. Nothing happened. He let the men
smoke. At last came the order: “Cease fire.”
When he read out the pink slip to his subordinates, they almost
groaned. Late products of the at last up-to-date O.T.C.’s of England,
they had only been out a few months and although they had seen
shell-fire and heavy casualties, yet there had always been a
retreating enemy, and fresh ground won every week. The endless-
seeming years of Trench Warfare they had missed entirely. The slow
attrition that left one alone, with all one’s friends wounded or killed,
dispersed to distant commands or remote jobs, meant nothing to
them. They had been schoolboys when Paschendaele was being
contested, Cadets when the Germans burst through the Fifth Army.
They wanted a victorious march to Berlin.
Dormer read the message out to the company. The men received the
news with ironical silence. He had the guards changed, and the
parade dismissed, but confined to billets. He heard one of his
N.C.O.’s say to another: “Cease fire! We’ve got the same amount of
stuff on us as we had two days ago!”
It made him thoughtful. Ought he to crime the chap? Why should he?
Had the Armistice come just in time? If it hadn’t come, would he have
been faced with the spectacle of two armies making peace by
themselves, without orders, against orders, sections and platoons
and companies simply not reloading their rifles, machine gunners
and Trench Mortars not unpacking their gear, finally even the artillery
keeping teams by the guns, and the inertia gradually spreading
upwards, until the few at the top who really wanted to go on, would
have found the dead weight of unwillingness impossible to drag?
The prospect, though curious, was not alarming. In a country so
denuded and starved, one could keep discipline by the simple
expedient of withholding rations. He had already seen, a year before
at Étaples, the leaderless plight of all those millions of armed men,
once they were unofficered. He was not stampeded by panic, and
his inherited, inbred honesty bade him ask himself: “Why shouldn’t
they make Peace themselves?” The object that had drawn all these
men together was achieved. The invasion of France was at an end,
that of Belgium a matter of evacuation only. “Cease fire.” It almost
began to look like an attempt to save face. Was it the same on the
German side too?
In the afternoon he proposed to walk over to Battalion H.Q. and have
a word with the Colonel. He knew quite well he should find the other
company commanders there. Naturally every one would want to get
some idea of what was to be expected under these totally
unprecedented circumstances. He was met at the door of his billet
by a message from the youngster he had left in charge. He had got a
hundred and forty prisoners.
Dormer went at once. He could see it all before he got there. All
along the opposite side of the street, faultlessly aligned and properly
“at ease” were men in field grey. At either end of the line stood a
guard of his own company, and not all Dormer’s pride in the men he
had led with very fair success, with whose training and appearance
he had taken great pains, could prevent his admitting to himself that
the only point at which his lot could claim superiority was in a sort of
grumpy humour. The machinery of War had conquered them less
entirely than it had conquered the Germans.
In the little time-keeper’s box, turned into the company office, he
found a tall, good-looking man, who immediately addressed him in
perfect English, giving the rank of Feld Webel, the quantity and
regiment of his party and adding: “I surrender to you, sir.” Dormer
gave instructions that the party should be marched to Brigade Head-
quarters. He wanted to send some report as to the capture, but his
subordinate replied: “We didn’t capture ’em. They just marched up
the street. The post at the bridge let ’em through.” Dormer let it go at
that, and having seen the street cleared, he walked over to see his
Colonel, who was billeted in a big school in a public park. His story
was heard with that sort of amusement that goes with the last bottle
of whisky, and the doubt as to when any more will be obtainable. The
Adjutant said: “Simply gave ’emselves up, did they?”
But the Captain commanding C Company, a man of about Dormer’s
own sort and service, voiced Dormer’s thought.
“I believe, in another week, we’d have had both sides simply laying
down their arms.”
“Oh, nonsense, soon stop that!” The Colonel spoke without real
conviction. He had to say that officially.
With regard to the object for which he had come, Dormer found
every one in his own difficulty. No one knew what was to happen,
except that arrangements were already on foot for enormous
demobilization camps. But the immediate steps were not even
known at Brigade. Every one, of course, aired some pet idea, and
were interrupted by noise outside, shouts and cries, the sound of
marching, and orders given in German. The room emptied in a
moment. The park was at one end of the town, and abutted on the
smaller streets of artisans’ dwellings that, in every town of the sort,
goes by the name of Le Nouveau Monde. This quarter had
apparently emptied itself into the park, to the number of some
hundreds, mostly people of over military age, or children, but one
and all with those thin white faces that showed the long years of
insufficient and unsuitable food, and the spiritual oppression that lay
on “occupied” territory. They were shouting and shaking their fists
round the compact formation of Dormer’s prisoners, who had just
been halted, in front of the house. The N.C.O. in charge had been
ordered by Brigade to bring them back. A chit explained the matter:
“Prisoners taken after 11.0 a.m. to be sent back to their own units, on
the line of retreat.”
The Feld Webel enlightened the Colonel’s mystification: “We refuse
to obey the order, sir. Our regiment is twenty miles away. All the
peasants have arms concealed. We shall just be shot down.”
It was a dilemma. Dormer could not help thinking how much better
the Feld Webel showed up, than his own Colonel. The latter could
not shoot the men where they stood. Nor could he leave them to the
mercies of the natives. How difficult War became with the burden of
civilization clogging its heels. The first thing to do was obviously to
telephone to the A.P.M. for police. In the meantime a French Liaison
Officer made a speech, and Dormer grinned to hear him. Fancying
apologizing for the War. But what else could the fellow do. He did it
well, considering. The crowd quieted, thinned, dispersed. The police
arrived, and had a discussion with the Adjutant. Still no conclusion.
The Feld Webel strode up and down in front of his men, master of
the situation. At length, some one had an idea. Six lorries rolled up in
the dark, an interpreter was put on board, and the party moved off in
the November dusk. The Commander of C Company and Dormer
left H.Q. together. Parting at the corner that separated their scattered
companies, they both exclaimed together:
“What a War!” and burst out laughing.

It was perhaps, to a certain degree, Dormer’s fault, that during the

remainder of November he became conscious of a dreary sense of
anti-climax. No doubt he was that sort of person. The emergencies
of the War had considerably overstrained his normal powers, which
he had forced to meet the need. The need had ceased, and he had
great difficulty in goading himself up to doing the bare necessary
routine of Company office parades. He managed to avoid being sent
up to the Rhine, and even secured a reasonable priority in
demobilization, but beyond this there was nothing for it but to
“continue the motion” of waiting for the next thing to happen.
His principal job was to extract from an unwilling peasantry, enough
ground for football. How often did he go to this farm and that village
shop, with his best manner, his most indirect approach, liberal orders
for any of the many commodities that could be bought, and in the
last resort, cheerful payment of ready money out of his own pocket in
order to obtain a grudging leave to use this or that unsuitable
meadow, not to the extent that the game of football demanded, but to
the extent that the small proprietors considered to be the least they
could make him accept for the most money that he could possibly be
made to pay.
Then, in the long dark evenings, there was the job of keeping the
men away from the worse sorts of estaminet. His own abilities,
limited to singing correctly the baritone part of Mendelssohn’s
Sacred Works, or Sullivan’s humorous ones, was not of any practical
service. What was wanted was the real star comic, the red-nosed
man with improbable umbrella, the stage clergyman with his stage
double-life and voice that recalled with such unintentional
faithfulness, the affected mock-culture of the closed and stereotyped
mind. Any deformity was welcome, not, Dormer observed, that they
wanted to laugh at the helplessness of the bandy leg or the stutterer,
the dwarf or the feeble-minded. On the contrary, the sentimentality of
the poorer English had never stood out in brighter relief than on the
edge of those devastated battlefields, where in their useless khaki,
the men who had perpetuated the social system that had so blindly
and wantonly used so many of them, waited patiently enough for the
order of release from the servitude that few of them had chosen or
any of them deserved. No, they liked to see the cunning and
prowess of the old lady, or the innocent boy, applauded the way in
which all those characters portrayed as having been born with less
than normal capabilities showed more than normal acquisitiveness
or perspicacity.
Dormer could not help reflecting how different they were from the
New Army in which he had enlisted. In the squad of which, at the
end of three months’ violent training and keenly contested
examinations, he had become the Corporal, there had been one or
two labourers, several clerks from the humbler warehouses and
railways, others in ascending scale from Insurance Offices and
Banks, one gorgeous individual who signed himself a Civil Servant,
three persons of private means, who drove up to the parade ground
in motor-cars. He well remembered one of these latter going
surreptitiously to the Colonel and applying for a commission, and
being indignantly refused, on the grounds that the Colonel didn’t
know who (socially) he (the applicant) was. But when the news got
out, the section were even more disrespectful to that unfortunate
individual because they considered he had committed a breach of
some sort of unwritten code that they had undertaken to observe. So
they went on together, the immense disparity of taste and outlook
cloaked by shoddy blue uniforms and dummy rifles, equal rations
and common fatigues.
But the first offensive of the spring of 1915 had brought new
conditions. The loss in infantry officers had been nothing short of
catastrophic. Very soon hints, and then public recommendation to
take commissions reached them. The section meanwhile had
altered. Two of the more skilled labourers had got themselves “asked
for” by munition works. Of the remainder Dormer and four others
applied and got commissions. He could see nothing like it now.
There was more of a mix-up than ever. For some men had been
exempted from the earlier “combings out” of the unenlisted for skill,
and others for ill-health. There was now only one really common
bond, the imperative necessity to forget the War and all that had to
do with it. This was the general impetus that had replaced the
volunteering spirit, and it was this that Dormer had to contend with.
He mastered the business of amusing the men pretty well, and his
subordinates helped him. A more serious difficulty was with the
skilled mechanics. Fortunately, an infantry battalion demanded little
skill, and except for a few miners who had been out no time at all,
and were at present making no fuss, there was plenty of grumbling
but no organized obstruction.
He found a more advanced state of affairs when he went at the
appointed time, to supervise a football match between a team
representing his own Brigade and that of a neighbouring Brigade of
Heavy Artillery. Crossing the Grand’ Place of the village to call on the
Gunner Mess he found a khaki crowd, but it took him some minutes
to realize that a full-dress protest meeting was in progress. Senior
N.C.O.’s were mounted upon a G.S. wagon. These, he gathered,
were the Chairman and speakers. Another soldier, whose rank he
could not see, was addressing the meeting. More shocked than he
had ever been in his life, he hastily circled the square, and got to the
Mess. He found most of the officers in; there was silence, they were
all reading and writing. After the usual politenesses came a pause.
He felt obliged to mention the object of his visit. Silence again.
Eventually the Captain with whom he had arranged the preliminaries
of the match said rather reluctantly:
“I’m afraid we shan’t be able to meet you this afternoon.”
Dormer forebore to ask the reason, but not knowing what else to do,
rose and prepared to take his leave. Possibly he spoke brusquely, he
was nervous in the atmosphere of constraint, but whatever may have
prompted the Gunner Captain, what he said was a confession:
“Our fellows are airing their views about demob.”
“Really!”
“Yes, perhaps you noticed it, as you came along?”
“Well, I did see a bit of a crowd.”
“You didn’t hear the speeches?” The other smiled.
“I heard nothing definitely objectionable, but it’s rather out of order,
isn’t it?”
“Well, I suppose so, but we get no help from up-atop!” The Captain
nodded in the direction of the Local Command.
“No, I suppose not,” Dormer sympathized.
The young Colonel interposed. “It’s very difficult to deal with the
matter. There’s a high percentage of skilled men in our formation.
They want to be getting back to their jobs.”
“It’s really rather natural,” agreed the Captain.
Dormer tried to help him. “We all do, don’t we?”
There was a sympathetic murmur in the Mess which evidently
displeased the Colonel.
“I’m not accustomed to all this going home after the battle. Time-
expired men I understand, but the New Army enlistments——” He
left it at that, and Dormer felt for him, probably, with the exception of
a few servants and N.C.O.’s, the only pre-War soldier in the Mess,
uncertain of himself and trying not to see the ill-suppressed
sympathy if not envy with which most of the officers around him
regarded the affair.
“Awfully sorry, Dormer,” the Captain concluded, “we simply can’t get
our crowd together. You see how it is. When this has blown over I’ll
come across and see you, and we will fix something up.”
Dormer went.
The Gunner Captain came that evening. In Dormer’s smaller Mess, it
needed only a hint to the youngsters to clear out for a few minutes.
Dormer admired the good humour with which the other approached
him. It was obviously the only thing to do.
Over drinks he asked, modelling himself on the other’s attitude:
“So that business blew over, did it?”
“It did, thank goodness. Awfully decent of you to take it as you did. I
hated letting you down.”
“Don’t mention it. I saw how you were placed.”
“The Colonel very much appreciated the way you spoke. I hope you
had no trouble with your chaps?”
“They were all right. I pitched them a yarn. They didn’t believe it, of
course. Some of them were at the—er——”
“The bloomin’ Parliament. Don’t mind saying it. It’s a dreadful shock
to a regular like our old man.”
“Naturally.”
“He spoke the plain unvarnished truth when he said he was unused
to all this demobbing.”
“Well, well, you can comfort him, I suppose, by pointing out that it
isn’t likely to occur again.”
“He’s a good old tough ’un. Splendid man in action, that’s what
makes one so sorry about it. Otherwise, of course, one knows what
the men mean. It’s only natural.”
“Perfectly.”
“His trouble is not only the newness of it. It’s his utter helplessness.”
“Quite so. Absolutely nothing to be done. The—er—meeting was as
orderly as possible. I walked right through it. They simply ignored
me.”
“Oh yes, there’s no personal feeling. They all paraded this morning
complete and regular.”
“That’s the end of it, I hope.”
“I think so. They came up to the Mess—three N.C.O.’s—a
deputation, if you please. They brought a copy of the resolution that
was passed.”
Neither could keep a straight face, but laughter did not matter
because it was simultaneous. The Captain went on, finishing his
drink:
“I believe the old man had a momentary feeling that he ought to
crime some one—but our Adjutant—topping chap—met them in the
passage and gave them a soft answer, and cooked up some sort of
report, and sent it up. It pacified ’em.”
“Did they need it?”
“Not really. ’Pon me word, never saw anything more reasonable in
my life, than what they had written out. It’s too bad, hanging ’em up
for months and months, while other people get their jobs. They know
what they want so much better than anyone else.”
“It’s impossible to please every one.”
“Yes. But when you think of what the men have done.”
Dormer did not reply. He was thinking of the Infantry, with their whole
possessions on their backs, always in front in the advance, last in
the retreat. The Gunner took his leave. Like everything else, either
because of the incident, or more probably without any relation to it,
the slow but steady progress of demobilization went on, those men
who had the more real grievance, or the greater power of
expression, got drafted off. The composition of units was always
changing. Even where it did not, what could “other ranks” do? To the
last Dormer felt his recurrent nightmare of the Headless Man to be
the last word on the subject. But it was becoming fainter and fainter
as the violence of the first impression dimmed, keeping pace with the
actuality of the dispersal of that khaki nation that lay spread across
France, Germany, Italy, the Balkans, and the East. The Headless
Man was fading out.

It was mid-April, the first fine weather of the year, when his own turn
came. Of course the Mess gave him a little dinner, for although
nothing on earth, not even four years of War, could make him a
soldier, his length of service, varied experience, and neat adaptability
had made him invaluable; again no one had ever found it possible to
quarrel with him; further, his preoccupation with games had made
him perhaps the most sought-for person in the Brigade.
Had it not been for these reasons, there was little else to which he
had a farewell to say; casualty, change, and now demobilization
removed friends, then chance acquaintances, until there was no one
with whom he was in the slightest degree intimate. He might almost
have been some attached officer staying in the Mess, instead of its
President, for all he knew of the officers composing it. There was
nothing in the village that lay on the edge of the battlefield that he
wanted to see again. It was not a place where he had trained or
fought, it was not even the place at which the news of the Armistice
had reached him. It was just a place where the Brigade of which his
battalion had formed a part had been dumped, so as to be out of the
way, but sufficiently within reach of rail, for the gradual attrition of
demobilization to work smoothly. An unkind person might have
wondered if the mild festival that took place in the estaminet of that
obscure commune was not so much a farewell dinner to old Dormer,
as an eagerly sought opportunity for a little extra food and drink that
might help to pass the empty days. Slightly bleary-eyed in the
morning, Dormer boarded the train, waved his hand to the little group
of officers on the platform, and sat down to smoke until he might
arrive at Dunkirk.
On a mild April evening, he paced the port side of the deck of the
steamer that was taking him home. He was aware that he might
have to spend a night in dispersal station, but it did not matter in the
least. The real end of the business to such an essential Englishman
as Dormer was here and now, watching the calm leaden sea-space
widen between him and the pier-head of Calais. Prophets might talk
about the obliteration of England’s island defences, but the
sentiment that the Channel evoked was untouched. After years of
effort and sacrifice, Dormer remained a stranger in France. He might
know parts of it tolerably well, speak its language fairly, fight beside
its soldiers, could feel a good deal of intelligent admiration for its
people and institutions, but nothing would ever make him French. It
would perhaps have been easier to assimilate him into Germany. But
on the whole, in spite of his unprovocative manner, he was difficult to
assimilate, a marked national type. Lengthier developments and
slower, more permanent revolutions were in his inherited mental
make-up, than in that of any of the other belligerents. In a Europe
where such thrones as were left were tottering and crashing, nothing
violent was in his mind, or in the minds of ninety per cent of those
men who covered the lower deck, singing together, with precisely the
same lugubrious humour, as in the days of defeat, of stalemate, or of
victory:
“Old soldiers never die,
They only fade away.”
He turned to look at them, packed like sardines, so that even the sea
breeze could hardly dissipate the clouds of cigarette smoke, just as
no disaster and no triumph could alter their island characteristics,
however much talk there might be about town life sapping the race.
As he looked at them, herded and stalled like animals, but cheerful in
their queer way as no animal can ever be, he remembered that
somewhere among all those thousands that were being poured back
into England day by day (unless of course he were buried in one of
those graveyards that marked so clearly the hundred miles from
Ypres to St. Quentin) was a private soldier, whom he had been told
to discover and bring to justice for the Crime at Vanderlynden’s, as
Kavanagh had called it. He had never even got the fellow’s name
and number, and he did not care. He never wanted the job, nothing
but his punctilious New Army spirit, that had made him take the War
as seriously as if it had been business, had kept him at it. Now he
had done with it, the man would never be found. But in Dormer’s
mind would always remain that phantom that he had pursued for so
many months—years even, over all those miles, in and out of so
many units and formations. It had come to stand for all that mass
whose minds were as drab as their uniform, so inarticulate, so
decent and likable in their humility and good temper. Theirs was the
true Republicanism, and no written constitution could add anything to
it. He had not thought of that affair, during all these last months that
had seen so many Empires fall, so many nations set upon their feet,
but he thought of it now.
He turned once again and surveyed that coastline, somewhere
behind which he had made that pilgrimage; there it lay, newly freed
Belgium on the left, on the right the chalky downs that ran from Gris-
Nez far out of sight, down to Arras. Between the two, on those
marshes so like any of South-Eastern England, had taken place that
Crime at Vanderlynden’s, that typified the whole War. There, on
those flat valleys of the Yser and the Lys, the English army had
come to rest after its first few weeks of romantic march and counter-
march. There had the long struggle of endurance been the longest
and least spectacular. It was there that the English Effort, as they
called it, had played its real part, far more than on the greater
battlefields farther south, or away on other continents. The Crime at
Vanderlynden’s showed the whole thing in miniature. The English
had been welcomed as Allies, resented as intruders, but never had
they become homogeneous with the soil and its natives, nor could
they ever leave any lasting mark on the body or spirit of the place.
They were still incomprehensible to Vanderlynden’s, and
Vanderlynden’s to them. Dormer was of all men most unwilling and
perhaps unable to seek for ultimate results of the phenomena that
passed before his eyes. To him, at that moment, it seemed that the
English Effort was fading out, leaving nothing but graveyards. And
when he found this moving him, his horror of the expression of any
emotion asserted itself, and he elbowed his way down the
companion, to get a drink.
When he came up again, that low shore had passed out of sight, but
ahead was visible the moderately white cliffs of England, beyond
which lay his occupation and his home, his true mental environment,
and native aspiration. He experienced now in all its fullness the
feeling that had been with him with such tragic brevity from time to
time during those years. This last passage of the Channel was, this
time, real escape. The Crime at Vanderlynden’s was behind him. He
had got away from it at last.
Printed in Great Britain by Butler & Tanner Ltd., Frome and London
 TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
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Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.
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