Characterization and identification of thermoacidophilic archaebacteria isolated in Japan.

Abstract

Three isolates of spherical thermoacidophilic archaebacteria (strains TA-1, TA-2 and N-8) were obtained from acidic hot springs at Hakone and Noboribetsu in Japan. We have studied the isolates using electron microscopy, Gram staining, sensitivity to lysozyme, growth conditions, lipid compositions, SDS-PAGE patterns of whole-cell proteins, DNA base composition and partial 16S rRNA sequences. These characteristics of the isolates were compared with those of the type strains, Sulfolobus acidocaldarius, Sulfolobus solfataricus, Acidianus brierleyi, Acidianus infernus, Metallosphaera sedula and Desulfurolobus ambivalens. Comparative studies indicated that the isolate TA-1 was novel species of either Sulfolobus or Acidianus, the isolate TA-2 belonged to the genus Metallosphaera, and the isolate N-8 belonged to the same species of S. acidocaldarius isolated from Yellowstone.A comparative sequence study of the 16S rRNAs showed that living organisms can be divided into three kingdoms: the traditional eubacterial and eukaryotic kingdoms and the newly recognized archaebacterial kingdom (22,23). Although archaebacteria exhibit a prokaryotic cell structure and organization, they show distinguishing and unique features (1,10,11,(14)(15)(16).From acidic hot springs in Japan, three isolates of spherical thermoacidophilic archaebacteria (strains TA-1, TA-2 and N-8) were obtained. Total lipid composition analysis and preliminary results of growth temperature and pH showed that these three strains belong to the order Sulfolobales (19,20).

Genomic evidence of rapid, global-scale gene flow in a Sulfolobus species

“…Three geographically distinct strains of S. acidocaldarius have been reported to date: (i) the type strain 98-3 isolated from the Norris Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park (Brock et al, 1972), (ii) strain N8 isolated from the Jigokudani thermal field near Norboribetsu, on the Japanese island of Hokkaido (Kurosawa et al, 1995) and (iii) strain Ron 12/I cultured from self-heating mining waste near Ronneburg in eastern Germany (Fuchs et al, 1995). The average distance between these sites (that is, 8209 km) exceeds the largest distances represented by sequenced S. islandicus genomes by about 2000 km (Reno et al, 2009), and thus should measure primarily the impact of geographical separation, with only a minor contribution from local Sulfolobus diversity (Whitaker et al, 2003;Reno et al, 2009).…”

Thermoacidophilic Microorganisms and their Novel Biocatalysts

“…These results suggest that this APase is a monomeric protein [53]. The optimum pH and temperature of the enzyme for p-nitrophenylphosphate (pNPP) as a substrate were 5.0 and 70 C, respectively.…”

Structured Populations of Sulfolobus acidocaldarius with Susceptibility to Mobile Genetic Elements

“…The first relied on the identification of SNPs in the core genome using breseq ( Barrick et al 2009 ). We included three previously sequenced strains: S. acidocaldarius DSM639, isolated in Yellowstone National Park in 1972 ( Brock et al 1972 ; Chen et al 2005 ), S. acidocaldarius N8, isolated from a thermal field in Hokkaido ( Kurosawa et al 1995 ; Mao and Grogan 2012 ), and S. acidocaldarius Ron 12/I, isolated from a uranium mine in Germany ( Fuchs et al 1995 ; Mao and Grogan 2012 ). We mapped the reads of each S. acidocaldarius genome against an ancestral reference genome ( S. acidocaldarius DSM 639) using default parameters to identify all core SNPs, insertions and deletions.…”