A ubiquitous thermoacidophilic archaeon from deep-sea hydrothermal vents

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Date
2006-05-19Author
Reysenbach, Anna-Louise
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Liu, Yitai
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Banta, Amy B.
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Beveridge, Terry J.
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Kirshtein, Julie D.
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Schouten, Stefan
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Tivey, Margaret K.
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Von Damm, Karen L.
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Voytek, Mary A.
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https://hdl.handle.net/1912/1408As published
https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04921Abstract
Deep-sea hydrothermal vents play an important role in global biogeochemical
cycles, providing biological oases at the seafloor that are supported by the thermal
and chemical flux from the Earth’s interior. As hot, acidic and reduced
hydrothermal fluids mix with cold, alkaline and oxygenated seawater, minerals
precipitate to form porous sulphide-sulphate deposits. These structures provide
microhabitats for a diversity of prokaryotes that exploit the geochemical and
physical gradients in this dynamic ecosystem. It has been proposed that fluid pH in the actively-venting sulphide structures is generally low (pH<4.5)2 yet no
extreme thermoacidophile has been isolated from vent deposits. Culture-independent
surveys based on rRNA genes from deep-sea hydrothermal deposits
have identified a widespread euryarchaeotal lineage, DHVE23-6. Despite DHVE2’s
ubiquity and apparent deep-sea endemism, cultivation of this group has been
unsuccessful and thus its metabolism remains a mystery. Here we report the
isolation and cultivation of a member of the DHVE2 group, which is an obligate
thermoacidophilic sulphur or iron reducing heterotroph capable of growing from
pH 3.3 to 5.8 and between 55 to 75°C. In addition, we demonstrate that this isolate
constitutes up to 15% of the archaeal population, providing the first evidence that
thermoacidophiles may be key players in the sulphur and iron cycling at deep-sea
vents.
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Author Posting. © Nature Publishing Group, 2006. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Nature Publishing Group for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Nature 442 (2006): 444-447, doi:10.1038/nature04921.