Thermus aquaticus

Thermus aquaticus
	Thermus aquaticus
Systematics
Domain :	Bacteria (bacteria)
Department :	Deinococcus Thermus
Class :	Deinococci
Order :	Thermales
Genre :	Thermus
Type :	Thermus aquaticus
Scientific name
	Thermus aquaticus
	Freeze & Brock , 1969

Thermus aquaticus belongs to the thermophilic (heat-loving), gram-negative bacteria and lives in hot springs and geysers, for example in Yellowstone National Park . There, near the Great Fountain Geyser , the bacterium was discovered in 1969 by researchers from Indiana University . The ambient temperature in these springs is around 50 to 80 ° C. Thermus aquaticus is dependent on oxygen ( aerobic ), amino acids , sugar , various organic acids or mixtures of other substances are usedfor nutrition. The bacterium is therefore chemoorganotrophic , it needs organic substances for nutrition.

The Thermus cell wall contains a peptidoglycan in which the diaminopimelic acid has been replaced by ornithine .

T. aquaticus became known from 1988 onwards for its thermostable DNA polymerase (also known as Taq polymerase or Taq -Pol after its name ), which considerably simplifies the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for the replication of DNA . This thermostable enzyme survives the denaturation step and the polymerase does not have to be added with each cycle.

literature

Michael T. Madigan, John M. Martinko, Jack Parker: Brock - Microbiology . 11th updated edition. Pearson Studies, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-8273-7358-8 .

Individual evidence

↑ Brock, TD and Freeze, H. (1969): Thermus aquaticus, a Nonsporulating Extreme Thermophile. In: J. Bact. 98, 289-97, PMID 5781580 .
↑ Martin Dworkin, Stanley Falkow, Eugene Rosenberg, Karl-Heinz Schleifer, Erko Stackebrandt (Eds.): The Prokaryotes, A Handbook of the Biology of Bacteria . 7 volumes, 3rd edition, Springer-Verlag, New York et al. O., 2006, ISBN 0-387-30740-0 Volume 7: Proteobacteria: Delta and Epsilon Subclasses. Deeply Rooting Bacteria ISBN 978-0-387-25497-5 .

Web links

Commons : Thermus aquaticus - album with pictures, videos and audio files

[1] Brock, TD and Freeze, H. (1969): Thermus aquaticus, a Nonsporulating Extreme Thermophile. In: J. Bact. 98, 289-97, PMID 5781580 .

[Prokaryotes-2] Martin Dworkin, Stanley Falkow, Eugene Rosenberg, Karl-Heinz Schleifer, Erko Stackebrandt (Eds.): The Prokaryotes, A Handbook of the Biology of Bacteria . 7 volumes, 3rd edition, Springer-Verlag, New York et al. O., 2006, ISBN 0-387-30740-0 Volume 7: Proteobacteria: Delta and Epsilon Subclasses. Deeply Rooting Bacteria ISBN 978-0-387-25497-5 .