Far beneath the surface of the ocean lies the largest and least explored habitat on Earth. The deep sea is cold, dark, highly pressurised – and home to a huge amount of undiscovered life.

The first hydrothermal vent systems were only discovered in 1977 during an expedition to the Pacific Ocean’s Galapagos Rift by a team from the US Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. They observed these underwater geysers surrounded by dense communities of organisms such as giant tube worms, clams and mussels, all living in complete darkness.

These deep-ocean vent systems represent natural laboratories for studying life in extreme conditions. My latest research with colleagues at the Institute of Oceanology and BGI Research, both of which are based in China, shows that this extreme world is an evolutionary engine, producing tiny organisms with yet-to-be-discovered properties anywhere else on land or in the sea.

Such biological novelty could help drive important innovations in biotechnology. Potential benefits include discovering new antimicrobial molecules for fighting disease, diagnostic tools to track the spread of pathogens in the environment, and even new ways to tackle plastic pollution in our oceans.

Difficulties of deep-sea research

Scientists have long known that microbes dominate the deep ocean. Many of these tiny organisms help more complex lifeforms such as tube worms and crabs thrive, because microbes convert hydrogen sulphide and methane into........

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