title: Plasmids and viruses of the thermoacidophilic crenarchaeote Sulfolobus.
abstract: The crenarchaeote Sulfolobus spp. is a host for a remarkably large spectrum of viruses and plasmids. The genetic elements characterized so far indicate a large degree of novelty in terms of morphology (viruses) and in terms of genome content (plasmids and viruses). The viruses and conjugative plasmids encode a great number of conserved proteins of unknown function due to the lack of sequence similarity to functionally characterized proteins. These apparently essential proteins remain to be studied and should help to understand the physiology and genetics of the respective genetic elements as well as the host. Sulfolobus is one of the best-studied archaeons and could develop into an important model organism of the crenarchaea and the archaea.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biochemistry, University of Bayreuth, Universitätstrasse 30, 95440, Bayreuth, Germany. georg.lipps@uni-bayreuth.de
authors.forename: Georg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lipps
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D019843:Archaeal Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D023641:Archaeal Viruses / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D001483:Base Sequence; D003227:Conjugation, Genetic; D019641:DNA, Archaeal / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D019241:Fuselloviridae / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D016679:Genome, Viral; D023644:Guttaviridae / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D023643:Lipothrixviridae / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010957:Plasmids / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D023642:Rudiviridae / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D016944:Sulfolobus / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000821:virology*
chemical_list: D019843:Archaeal Proteins; D019641:DNA, Archaeal