Three spherical thermoacidophilic archaea (strains TA-1T, TA-13, TA-14) were obtained from acidic hot springs located in Ohwaku Valley, Hakone, Japan. All the isolates are facultatively anaerobic, and grew optimally at around 85 degrees C, pH 2.0. Isolate TA-1T was characterized further. The G + C content of DNA from TA-1T is 33 mol%. Although these properties resemble those of the genus Acidia...

At the industrial scale, bioleaching of metal sulfides includes two main technologies, tank leaching and heap leaching. Fluctuations in temperature caused by the exothermic reactions in a heap have a pronounced effect on the growth of microbes and composition of mixed microbial populations. Currently, little is known on the influence of pre-colonized mesophiles or moderate thermophiles on the a...

Biofilm formation and the production of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) by meso- and thermoacidophilic metal-oxidizing archaea on relevant substrates have been studied to a limited extent. In order to investigate glycoconjugates, a major part of the EPS, during biofilm formation/bioleaching by archaea on pyrite, a screening with 75 commercially available lectins by fluorescence lectin-...

The complete genome of Acidianus manzaensis YN-25 consists of a chromosome of 2,687,463 bp, with a G+C content of 30.62% and 2,746 coding DNA sequences. This archaeon contains a series of specific genes involved in the oxidation of elemental sulfur and reduced inorganic sulfur compounds.

Acidianus copahuensis is a recently characterized thermoacidophilic archaeon isolated from the Copahue volcanic area in Argentina. Here, we present its draft genome sequence, in which we found genes involved in key metabolic pathways for developing under Copahue's extreme environmental conditions, such as sulfur and iron oxidation, carbon fixation, and metal tolerance.

Acidianus two-tailed virus (ATV) infects crenarchaea of the genus Acidianus living in terrestrial thermal springs at extremely high temperatures and low pH. ATV is a member of the Bicaudaviridae virus family and undergoes extra-cellular development of two tails, a process that is unique in the viral world. To understand this intriguing phenomenon, we have undertaken structural studies of ATV vi...

Sulfur oxygenase reductase (SOR) simultaneously catalyzes oxidation and reduction of elemental sulfur to produce sulfite, thiosulfate, and sulfide in the presence of molecular oxygen. In this study, crystal structures of wild type and mutants of SOR from Acidianus tengchongensis (SOR-AT) in two different crystal forms were determined and it was observed that 24 identical SOR monomers form a hol...

Carbon disulfide (CS(2)) and carbonyl sulfide (COS) are important in the global sulfur cycle, and CS(2) is used as a solvent in the viscose industry. These compounds can be converted by sulfur-oxidizing bacteria, such as Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans species, to carbon dioxide (CO(2)) and hydrogen sulfide (H2S), a property used in industrial biofiltration of CS(2)-polluted airstreams. We report...