Extremely Thermophilic Fermentative Archaebacteria of the Genus Desulfurococcus from Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents †

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Two strains of extremely thermophilic, anaerobic bacteria are described that are representative of isolates obtained from a variety of oceanic hydrothermal vent sites at depths from 2,000 to 3,700 m. The isolates were similar in their requirements for complex organic media, elemental sulfur, and seawater-range salinities (optimum, 2.1 to 2.4%); their high tolerance for sulfide (100 mM) and oxic conditions below growth-range temperatures (50 to 95°C); and their archaebacterial characteristics: absence of murein, presence of certain diand tetraethers, and response to specific antibiotics. The two strains (S and SY, respectively) differed slightly in their optimum growth temperatures (85 and 90°C, optimum pHs for growth (7.5 and 7.0), and DNA base compositions (52.01 and 52.42 G+C mol%). At their in situ pressure of about 250 atm (25,313 kPa), growth rates at 80 and 90°C were about 40% lower than those at 1 atm (101.29 kPa), and no growth occurred at 100 and 110°C, respectively, at either pressure. In yeast extract medium, only 2% of the organic carbon was used and appeared to stem largely from the proteinaceous constituents. According to physiological criteria, the isolates belong to the genus Desulfurococcus.

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