Thermoproteous tenax
Classification
Domain; Phylum; Class; Order; family [Others may be used. Use NCBI link to find]
Species
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NCBI: [1] |
Thermoproteus tenax
Description and Significance
Thermoproteus tenax is a hyperthermophilic archaeal organism first discovered in volcanic fields in Iceland, known as solfataras (Zillig et al., 1981). It is a strict anaerobe that is notable for its ability to grow both chemolithoautotrophically and chemoorganoheterotrophically (Siebers et al., 2011). It is dependent on sulfur for growth, which functions as its final electron receptor (Siebers et al., 2011).
Thermoproteus tenax is rod shaped with variable length and encompassed by a protein S-layer with a hexagonal lattice structure (Wildhaber and Baumeister, 1987). It is unique in that it is the first member of the Thermoproteus genus to have a fully sequenced genome (Siebers et al., 2011).
Genome Structure
The genome of Thermoproteus tenax is 1,841,542 base pairs long and contains 91 unique open reading frames (Siebers et al., 2011). The single circular chromosome contains 2,051 protein-encoding open reading frames with an average length of 813 base pairs and a predicted 1,552 assigned functions (Siebers et al., 2011). It has an average GC content of 55.13%, which is higher than average for the archaea domain (Siebers et al., 2011; Li and Du, 2014). For each of the genes encoding for ribosomal RNA (23S, 16S, and 5S), only one copy is present in the genome (Siebers et al., 2011).
Cell Structure, Metabolism and Life Cycle
Interesting features of cell structure; how it gains energy; what important molecules it produces.
Ecology and Pathogenesis
No archaea described in literature thus far have been identified as pathogenic (Moissl-Eichinger et al., 2017).
As mentioned previously, Thermoproteus tenax is hyperthermophilic, growing at an optimum temperature of 86 degrees Celsius in slightly acidic conditions (Siebers et al., 2011; Messner et al., 1986). While no literature has described the possible environmental associations of this microbe, members of a sister genus, Pyrobacula , are thought to contribute to mineral formation within sediments of geothermal environments (Stewart et al., 2018). These Pyrobacula have been experimentally shown to contribute to the green coloration of the sediments, which act as substrates for the archaea to perform iron-reducing activity (Stewart et al., 2018).
References
Author
Page authored by Audrey Groves, student of Prof. Bradley Tolar at UNC Wilmington.
