A novel acidophilic, thermophilic iron and sulfur-oxidizing archaeon isolated from a hot spring of tengchong, yunnan, China

A novel thermoacidophilic iron and sulfur-oxidizing archaeon, strain YN25, was isolated from an in situ enriched acid hot spring sample collected in Yunnan, China. Cells were irregular cocci, about 0.9-1.02 µm×1.0-1.31 µm in the medium containing elemental sulfur and 1.5-2.22 µm×1.8-2.54 µm in ferrous sulfate medium. The ranges of growth and pH were 50-85 (optimum 65) and pH 1.0-6.0 (optimum 1.5-2.5). The acidophile was able to grow heterotrophically on several organic substrates, including various monosaccharides, alcohols and amino acids, though the growth on single substrate required ...