title: Hyperthermus butylicus, a hyperthermophilic sulfur-reducing archaebacterium that ferments peptides.
abstract: The hyperthermophilic peptide-fermenting sulfur archaebacterium Hyperthermus butylicus was isolated from the sea floor of a solfataric habitat with temperatures of up to 112 degrees C on the coast of the island of São Miguel, Azores. The organism grows at up to 108 degrees C, grows optimally between 95 and 106 degrees C at 17 g of NaCl per liter and pH 7.0, utilizes peptide mixtures as carbon and energy sources, and forms H2S from elemental sulfur and molecular hydrogen as a growth-stimulating accessory energy source but not by sulfur respiration. The same fermentation products, CO2, 1-butanol, acetic acid, phenylacetic acid, and a trace of hydroxyphenylacetic acid, are formed both with and without of S0 and H2. Its ether lipids, the absence of a mureine sacculus, the nature of the DNA-dependent RNA polymerase, and phylogenetic classification by DNA-rRNA cross-hybridization characterize H. butylicus as part of a novel genus of the major branch of archaebacteria comprising the orders Thermoproteales and Sulfolobales, representing a particularly long lineage bifurcating with the order Sulfolobales above the branching off of the genus Thermoproteus and distinct from the genera Desulfurococcus and Pyrodictium.
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institut für Biochemie, Martinsried, Federal Republic of Germany.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zillig
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Holz
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Janekovic
authors.forename: H P
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Klenk
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Imsel
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Trent
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wunderl
authors.forename: V H
authors.initials: VH
authors.lastname: Forjaz
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Coutinho
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ferreira
mesh_terms: D001105:Archaea / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D018407:Bacterial Physiological Phenomena; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D012321:DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases / Q000378:metabolism; D005285:Fermentation; D007700:Kinetics; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D010455:Peptides / Q000378:metabolism*; D010802:Phylogeny; D012623:Seawater; D014871:Water Microbiology
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D010455:Peptides; D012321:DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases