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Updated: Jun 26, 2026

Adaptation at the Extremes of Life: Experimental Evolution with the Extremophile Archaeon Sulfolobus acidocaldarius
Published on: June 14, 2024
Complete genome sequence of the anaerobic, protein-degrading hyperthermophilic crenarchaeon Desulfurococcus
Nikolai V Ravin1, Andrey V Mardanov, Alexey V Beletsky
1Centre "Bioengineering," Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.
Abstract:
Desulfurococcus kamchatkensis is an anaerobic organotrophic hyperthermophilic crenarchaeon isolated from a terrestrial hot spring. Its genome consists of a single circular chromosome of 1,365,223 bp with no extrachromosomal elements. A total of 1,474 protein-encoding genes were annotated, among which 205 are exclusive for D. kamchatkensis. The search for a replication origin site revealed a single region coinciding with a global extreme of the nucleotide composition disparity curve and containing a set of crenarchaeon-type origin recognition boxes. Unlike in most archaea, two genes encoding homologs of the eukaryotic initiator proteins Orc1 and Cdc6 are located distantly from this site. A number of mobile elements are present in the genome, including seven transposons representing IS607 and IS200/IS605 families and multiple copies of miniature inverted repeat transposable elements. Two large clusters of regularly interspaced repeats are present; none of the spacer sequences matches known archaeal extrachromosomal elements, except one spacer matches the sequence of a resident gene of D. kamchatkensis. Many of the predicted metabolic enzymes are associated with the fermentation of peptides and sugars, including more than 30 peptidases with diverse specificities, a number of polysaccharide degradation enzymes, and many transporters. Consistently, the genome encodes both enzymes of the modified Embden-Meyerhof pathway of glucose oxidation and a set of enzymes needed for gluconeogenesis. The genome structure and content reflect the organism's nutritionally diverse, competitive natural environment, which is periodically invaded by viruses and other mobile elements.
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