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J. Bacteriol. doi:10.1128/JB.01949-07
Copyright (c) 2008, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

Genome sequence of Thermofilum pendens reveals an exceptional loss of biosynthetic pathways without genome reduction

Joint Genome Institute, 2800 Mitchell Drive, Walnut Creek, CA 94598; Virginia Bioinformatics Institute and Departments of Biochemistry and Biological Sciences, Genetics, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Graduate Program, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061; Dept. of Microbiology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602; Dept. of Microbiology, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801; Joint Institute for Computational Sciences, University of Tennessee – Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831; Bioscience Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831; Bioscience Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: IJAnderson{at}lbl.gov.

	Abstract

We report the complete genome of Thermofilum pendens, a deep-branching, hyperthermophilic member of the order Thermoproteales within the archaeal kingdom Crenarchaeota. T. pendens is a sulfur-dependent, anaerobic heterotroph isolated from a solfatara in Iceland. It is an extracellular commensal, requiring an extract of Thermoproteus tenax for growth, and the genome sequence reveals that biosynthetic pathways for purines, most amino acids, and most cofactors are absent. In fact T. pendens has fewer biosynthetic enzymes than obligate intracellular parasites, although it. does not display other features common among obligate parasites and thus does not appear to be in the process of becoming a parasite. It appears that T. pendens has adapted to life in an environment rich in nutrients. T. pendens was known to utilize peptides as an energy source, but the genome reveals substantial ability to grow on carbohydrates. T. pendens is the first crenarchaeote and only the second archaeon found to have a transporter of the phosphotransferase system. In addition to fermentation, T. pendens may gain energy from sulfur reduction with hydrogen and formate as electron donors. It may also be capable of sulfur-independent growth on formate with formate hydrogenlyase. Additional novel features are the presence of a monomethylamine:corrinoid methyltransferase, the first time this enzyme has been found outside of Methanosarcinales, and a presenilin-related protein. Predicted highly expressed proteins do not include housekeeping genes, and instead include ABC transporters for carbohydrates and peptides, and CRISPR-associated proteins.

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