what are some examples of hyperthermophiles

Hyperthermophile Examples Some of the common examples of hyperthermophilic organisms are Thermoproteus uzoniensis, Staphylothermus marinus, Pyrodictium abyssi, Pyrococcus furiosus, Hypothermus butylicus, Pryococcus woesei, Pyrodictium brockii, Pyrodictium occultum, etc. Microorganisms in extreme pH (Acidophile/Alkaliphile)

Full Answer

What is a hyperthermophile?

A hyperthermophile is an organism that can live and thrive at high temperatures, i.e. at or above 80°C. Hyperthermophiles are one of the three types of groups of thermophile s. Thermophiles are organisms capable of living at high temperatures, i.e. between 41 and 122 °C. Other groups are the obligate thermophiles and the facultative thermophiles.

What is an archaea hyperthermophile?

A hyperthermophile is an organism that thrives in extremely hot environments—from 60 °C (140 °F) upwards. An optimal temperature for the existence of hyperthermophiles is often above 80 °C (176 °F). Hyperthermophiles are often within the domain Archaea, although some bacteria are able to tolerate temperatures of around 100 °C (212 °F), as well.

What are the different types of thermophiles?

Background of research Thermophiles are now classified by their growth temperature as follows: thermophiles above 55 ℃, moderate thermophiles above 65 ℃, extreme thermophiles above 75 ℃, and hyperthermophiles above 90 ℃.

Is Pyrodictium a hyperthermophile?

Among the Crenarchaeota, Pyrodictium and Pyrolobus (order Igneococcales) are chemolithotrophic sulfur-dependent hyperthermophiles whose maximum growth temperatures of 110 and 113 °C, respectively, represent the upper temperature limits for life known so far. Pyrodictium is a strict anaerobe and grows on H 2 and S 0.

What are hyperthermophiles and where can they be found?

Today, hyperthermophilic ('superheat-loving') bacteria and archaea are found within high-temperature environments, representing the upper temperature border of life. They grow optimally above 80°C and exhibit an upper temperature border of growth up to 113°C.

What does hyperthermophiles mean?

Hyperthermophiles are defined as microorganisms that optimally grow at temperatures above 80°C (Stetter, 2013) or that can grow at temperatures above 90°C (Adams and Kelly, 1998). From: Biotechnology of Microbial Enzymes, 2017.

Are human pathogens hyperthermophiles?

A hyperthermophile is unlikely to be a human pathogen because the ideal temperature for that bacteria to live is well above the human body temperature of 37 degrees celsius. Refrigeration, freezing and curing meat in salt are all ways to make food inhospitable to pathogens.

What is the most extreme hyperthermophile?

The most extreme hyperthermophiles live on the superheated walls of deep-sea hydrothermal vents, requiring temperatures of at least 90 °C for survival. An extraordinary heat-tolerant hyperthermophile is Strain 121, which has been able to double its population during 24 hours in an autoclave at 121 °C (hence its name).

How do hyperthermophiles survive?

These organisms can even survive the autoclave, which is a machine designed to kill organisms through high temperature and pressure. Because hyperthermophiles live in such hot environments, they must have DNA, membrane, and enzyme modifications that help them withstand intense thermal energy.

What is the difference between thermophiles and hyperthermophiles?

Thermophiles contain enzymes that can function at high temperatures. Hyperthermophiles are particularly extreme thermophiles for which the optimal temperatures are above 80°C, and their membranes and proteins are unusually stable at these extremely high temperatures.

Are hyperthermophiles a concern in health care?

Are they a concern in health care? It depends on the bacteria. If hyperthermophiles survive the autoclave temperatures, they can't multiply at room temperatures. If they can go into a dormant state though it could cause a risk.

Are cyanobacteria hyperthermophiles?

Hyperthermophiles are limited to the Archaea and Bacteria. In addition, we inspect the distribution of extremophiles within the cyanobacteria. The cyanobacteria are unique in being able to tolerate rapidly fluctuating environmental conditions.

Is Listeria a mesophile?

Examples. Some notable mesophiles include Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, and Escherichia coli. Other examples of species of mesophiles are Clostridium kluyveri, Pseudomonas maltophilia, Thiobacillus novellus, Streptococcus pyogenes, and Streptococcus pneumoniae.

In which environment are you most likely to encounter a hyperthermophile?

hydrothermal vent at the bottom of the ocean.

How hot Can life survive?

How does – or doesn't – your body cope in extreme situations? The maximum body temperature a human can survive is 108.14°F. At higher temperatures the body turns into scrambled eggs: proteins are denatured and the brain gets damaged irreparably.

What are some examples of Psychrotrophs?

Among the psychrotrophic bacteria include Aeromonas, Acinetobacter, Alcaligenes, Psychrobacter, Brochothrix, Enterobacter, Microbacterium, Moraxella, Carnobacterium, Shewanella, Campylobacter, Yersinia, Pseudomonas, Serratia, Achromobacter, Streptococcus, Leuconostoc, Pediococcus, Lactobacillus, Lactococcus, ...

Where do hyperthermophiles live?

Since then, more than 70 species have been established. The most extreme hyperthermophiles live on the superheated walls of deep-sea hydrothermal vents, requiring temperatures of at least 90 °C for survival. An extraordinary heat-tolerant hyperthermophile is Strain 121, which has been able to double its population during 24 hours in an autoclave at 121 °C (hence its name). The current record growth temperature is 122 °C, for Methanopyrus kandleri .

What is the temperature of a hyperthermophile?

An optimal temperature for the existence of hyperthermophiles is often above 80 °C (176 °F). Hyperthermophiles are often within the domain Archaea, although some bacteria are able to tolerate temperatures of around 100 °C (212 °F), as well. Some bacteria can live at temperatures higher than 100 °C at large depths in sea where water does not boil because of high pressure. Many hyperthermophiles are also able to withstand other environmental extremes such as high acidity or high radiation levels. Hyperthermophiles are a subset of extremophiles. Their existence may support the possibility of extraterrestrial life, as there is a higher heat range for life.

Why are proteins important in hyperthermophiles?

The protein molecules in the hyperthermophiles exhibit hyperthermostability —that is, they can maintain structural stability (and therefore function) at high temperatures . Such proteins are homologous to their functional analogues in organisms which thrive at lower temperatures, but have evolved to exhibit optimal function at much greater temperatures. Most of the low-temperature homologues of the hyperthermostable proteins would be denatured above 60 °C. Such hyperthermostable proteins are often commercially important, as chemical reactions proceed faster at high temperatures.

What temperature does Methanopyrus kandleri grow?

The current record growth temperature is 122 °C, for Methanopyrus kandleri .

What temperature does Geothermobacterium ferrireducens live in?

Geothermobacterium ferrireducens, which thrives in 65–100 °C in Obsidian Pool, Yellowstone National Park.

What temperature do psychrophiles grow?

Psychrophiles grow only at temperatures below 20C. Bacteria which grow at temperatures below as well as above 20C are called as psychrotropic bacteria.

Which bacteria are peritrichous?

Peritrichous: Numerous flagella are randomly distributed over the entire bacterial cell. For example Salmonella typhi and Escherichia coli

What bacteria are responsible for spoilage of food in refrigerators?

Psychrotropic bacteria are primarily responsible for spoilage of food in refrigerators.

How many types of bacteria are there in Cocci?

Cocci is a spherical shaped bacteria. Based on the arrangement of bacterial cells it is classified into 5 types.

Which term refers to single or tufts of flagella that are present at both the ends of a?

Amphitrichous: Single or tufts of flagella are present at both the ends of bacterial cell. For example Alcaligenes faecalis

Is psychrotropic bacteria cold tolerant?

Psychrotropic bacteria are commonly termed as ‘cold tolerant bacteria’. However, they should not be confused with mesophilic bacteria.

What are the genes of hyperthermophiles?

We analyzed two of these, Tk-subtilisin and Tk-SP. Subtilisins from mesophilic bacteria have been widely used in the detergent industry, because of broad substrate specificity and ease of large-scale preparation. Tk-subtilisin and Tk-SP are approximately 40% identical to these mesophilic bacterial subtilisins, and exhibit extraordinarily high stability compared with the mesophilic homologs. These two hyperthermophilic subtilisins are potential candidates for application in biotechnological fields, and will provide good models for the study of maturation and stabilization mechanisms in all subtilisin-like proteases.

What is the highest temperature for a hyperthermophile?

From these studies, the highest optimal growth temperature for an organism is 105–106 °C ( Table 1).

How does phr affect transcription?

Phr inhibits specifically cell-free transcription of its own gene and from promoters of genes of a small HSP, HSP20, and of an AAA + ATPase. The aaa+atpase and phr mRNA levels are induced after HS and during stationary growth phase in P. furiosus, indicating that the transcription of these genes is also affected by general stress and starvation. By contrast, the levels of the protein Phr are only slightly elevated during heat stress. In vitro experiments have shown that at high temperature (103 °C) Phr loses its functional conformation. The dissociation of the protein from its operator sequence may account for the high increase of phr mRNA levels detected after temperature upshift. Then, in Pyrococcus, there is a simple model for HS regulation: Phr binds promoter regions of HS genes at normothermic temperature inhibiting transcription by blocking RNAP recruitment. Subsequent release of Phr along with elevating temperature leads to activation of HS genes.

What temperature do hyperthermophiles grow?

Hyperthermophiles (mostly Archaea) grow optimally at temperatures above 80 °C with some representatives thriving even at 113 °C and higher ( Stetter, 2013 ). Occurrence of sulphate reduction at high temperature (above 100 °C) was shown by means of radio tracer ( 35 S-labelled sulphate) studies in hot deep-sea sediments retrieved from a hydrothermal vent site in the Guaymas Basin, Gulf of California ( Jørgensen, Isaksen, & Jannasch, 1992). The archaeal sulphate reducer A. fulgidus VC-16 T represents the first reported hyperthermophile among the SRP. The strain was isolated from hot sediments collected from a marine hydrothermal system at the Mediterranean island Vulcano (Italy) and displayed a Topt of 83 °C and Tmax of 92 °C ( Stetter et al., 1987 ). Research with A. fulgidus has primarily been concerned with the molecular understanding of adaptation to high temperature in the areas of dissimilatory sulphate reduction ( Parey, Fritz, et al., 2013 ), substrate uptake and ion exchange systems ( Andrade, Dickmanns, Ficner, & Einsle, 2005; Nishizawa et al., 2013), thermostability of biosynthetic enzymes (Yoneda, Sakuraba, Tsuge, Katunuma, & Ohshima, 2007 ), ether lipid biochemistry ( Lai, Springstead, & Monbouquette, 2008 ), genome-derived novel properties such as noncellulosomal cohesin ( Voronov-Goldman et al., 2011) and biogeochemically relevant sulphur isotope fractionation ( Mitchell, Heyer, Canfield, Hoek, & Habicht, 2009 ). The recently reported eubacterial Thermodesulfobacterium geofontis, isolated from Obsidian Pool (Yellowstone Park, USA), also qualifies as a hyperthermophile with a Topt 83 °C and a Tmax 90 °C ( Hamilton-Brehm et al., 2013). The supposedly sulphate-reducing crenarchaeote Caldivirga maquiligensis, isolated from an acidic hot spring in the Philippines and displaying a Topt 85 °C and a Tmax 92 °C ( Itoh et al., 1999 ), possesses a tri-split tRNA gene shedding new light on the evolution of fragmented tRNAs ( Fujishima et al., 2009 ).

Why are methanogens more abundant in the colonic flora of mice?

Methanogens are more abundant in the colonic flora of mice with a genetic disposition for obesity.

How do Archaeal HSP genes respond to HS?

Archaeal hsp genes respond to HS by an increase in the production of their monocistronic transcripts, as one would expect for stress genes. Maximum transcript levels are reached after longer exposures to high temperature than those that would induce a peak response in bacteria, in agreement with what is observed in eukaryotes.

How many genes are in the genome of a hyperthermophile?

The structure of this genome was verified by restriction mapping along the entire length of the genome using PCR amplification from genomic DNA. A total of 2694 predicted genes were identified, 25% of which were related to genes with putative function and about 20% related to the sequences with unknown function. The remaining gene products were novel and did not show any significant similarity to known sequences in the databases when reported. As expected for an aerobic organism, all but one of the genes for the tricarboxylic acid cycle were present. The single exception, α-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase, was functionally replaced by a 2-oxoacid:ferredoxin oxidoreductase. Fourteen introns were also discovered in its tRNA genes.

Keywords

High temperature, hot springs, hydrothermal vents, origin of life, thermal environment

Definition

The word hyperthermophile (literally extremely heat loving) refers to a microorganism that has an optimum temperature for growth above 80°C. Most hyperthermophiles belong to the Archaea domain, with only few exceptions belonging to Bacteria.

History

Thomas D. Brock ( 1978) isolated the archaeal genus Sulfolobus at Yellowstone National Park and showed that it grew optimally at 75°C with an upper temperature limit for growth at 85°C. Previous reports by the same author described prokaryotic microorganisms that were able to grow on microscopy slides inside boiling (92°C) hot springs.

References and Further Reading

Antranikian G (2008) DNA-binding proteins and DNA topology. In: Robb F, Antranikian G, Grogan D, Driessen A (eds) Thermophiles, biology and technology at high temperatures. CRC, Boca Raton, pp 113–160 Google Scholar

What are the requirements for hyperthermophiles?

Some, if not all, of the heterotrophic hyperthermophiles have rather unusual nutrient requirements, such as tungsten, a rarely used element in biological systems. Almost all of the known hyperthermophiles also require strictly anaerobic growth conditions. The present exceptions are the three species, Acidianus infernus, Aquifex pyrophilus and Pyrobaculum aerophilum; the last two are microaerophilic and utilize only low levels of oxygen. The majority of the hyperthermophiles, however, can maintain a respiratory-type metabolism that requires elemental sulfur, S°, rather than oxygen, and the S° is reduced to hydrogen sulfide, H 2 S. A few of the Archaea, including species of Pyroccocus and Thermococcus, and species of the bacterial genus Thermotoga, have fermentative rather than respiratory-type metabolisms, and can be grown in the absence of S°. As a consequence, these fermentative organisms are more appropriate for obtaining large-scale cultures, because they do not produce toxic H 2 S, which is particularly corrosive under the high temperatures required for the growth of such organisms. Additionally, they grow to much higher cell densities than the few autotrophic hyperthermophiles that are known. Consequently, most of the enzymes currently available have been obtained from these fermentative heterotrophs.

What temperature do hyperthermophiles grow at?

Hyperthermophiles, a recently discovered group of microorganisms, are operationally defined as having an optimum growth temperature of at least 80°C and a maximum growth temperature of over 90°C. Most of the enzymes isolated so far from such organisms exhibit correspondingly enhanced thermostability. This property has been used both for investigation of fundamental biological questions of protein structure and stability, and for the development of technological applications that require protein stability at high temperatures. Examples of such applications of thermostable proteins include their use in biocatalysts, in various materials and in crystallization methods. The use of DNA polymerases from hyperthermophilic microorganisms in the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is another of the more practical examples of the recent impact on biochemistry and molecular biology of enzymes isolated from hyperthermophilic organisms.

How to obtain proteins from hyperthermophilic organisms?

How can one obtain proteins from hyperthermophilic organisms? The two main avenues are either to grow the organisms and isolate the desired proteins, or to clone the gene for a desired protein from a hyperthermophile library and express it in a suitable mesophilic host. Strains of almost all of the hyperthermophiles can be obtained from the German Culture Collection (DSM, Braunschweig D-3300, Germany). A number of genes from these organisms have been successfully expressed in Escherichia coli, and in many cases the active recombinant protein has been purified. Such purified proteins include DNA polymerases, rubredoxin, ferredoxin, dehydrogenases and carbohydrate-metabolizing enzymes. This is obviously an important development, as the ability to produce recombinant versions of thermostable proteins permits the application of mutagenesis methods to modify proteins and study fundamental issues of stability, as well as to try and modify them to have more technologically desirable properties. Recombinant technology has not been successful in every case, however. For example, some of the recombinant proteins appear to be unable to fold into the active form at mesophilic temperatures when expressed in a mesophilic host. In addition, no genetic systems have yet been established for hyperthermophiles, which precludes many of the classical approaches to analyzing protein function and regulation. Nevertheless, large scale genome sequencing operations are now underway for several hyperthermophilic microorganisms [

What is the maximum temperature of a hyperthermophilic organism?

To date, the maximum growth temperatures observed for a hyperthermophilic organism is about 110°C. Whether this is the upper limit for life is unknown; some workers estimate that the maximum growth temperature for, as yet, uncultured organisms may approach, or even exceed 150°C [

Where are hyperthermophilic microorganisms found?

The majority of the presently known 20 or so hyperthermophilic genera are of marine origin, and are found either in the hot sediments of coastal waters or near deep sea hydrothermal vents. The remaining genera have been isolated primarily from continental hot springs. Nearly all of these microorganisms are classified as Archaea, including genera such as Pyrococcus, Pyrobaculum and Methanopyrus, all species of which grow above 100°C. There are currently only two bacterial genera represented among the hyperthermophiles, Thermotoga and Aquifex. By 16S rRNA analyses, it has been shown that the hyperthermophilic genera are the most slowly evolving organisms within both the archaeal and bacterial domains [

What are the proteins that are isolated from hyperthermophiles?

Many of the proteins that have been isolated so far from hyperthermophiles may be classified as either hydrolases (proteases and carbohydrases), redox enzymes (electron transfer proteins, oxidoreductases and dehydrogenases) or as polymerases. But the list of enzymes isolated from these organisms is by no means restricted to these categories, and an ever-increasing number of proteins such as transcription factors, heat shock proteins (yes, even hyperthermophiles appear to exhibit a heat shock response) and even some membrane proteins have been isolated and characterized. The extreme thermal stability of most of these enzymes guarantees that more and more proteins from hyperthermophiles will be isolated and characterized. An added incentive is the close phylogenetic relationship between Archaea and Eucarya which have a common ancestor not shared by the Bacteria; the exploration of this relationship at the structural and functional level is a rapidly expanding area.

Which protease is found in the Pyrobaculum aerophilum?

The sequence of a subtilisin-type protease (aerolysin) from the hyperthermophilic archaeum Pyrobaculum aerophilum reveals sites important to thermostability.

Overview

Specific hyperthermophiles

• Strain 121, an archaeon living at 121 °C in the Pacific Ocean.
• Pyrolobus fumarii, an archaeon living at 113 °C in Atlantic hydrothermal vents.
• Pyrococcus furiosus, an archaeon which thrives at 100 °C, first discovered in Italy near a volcanic vent.

History

Research

See also

Further reading