Isolation and characterization of Thermococcus barossii, sp. nov., a hyperthermophilic Archaeon isolated from a hydrothermal vent flange formation

A new hyperthermophilic microorganism, Thermococcus barossii, was isolated from rock fragments of a hydrothermal vent flange formation, located along the East Pacific Rise of the Juan cie Fuca Ridge. This organism is obligately anaerobic and grows over a temperature range of at least 60-92 degrees C in artificial seawater-based media, containing elemental sulfur, tryptone and yeast extract. The addition of a maltooligosaccharide mixture and tungsten to this medium improved growth to some extent. At the T-opt for growth (82.5 degrees C), cell densities as high as 4x10(8) cells/ml could be obtained in IS-liter batch fermentations, with a doubling time of approximately 40 minutes, if culture access to elemental sulfur was sufficient. In continuous culture at the same temperature, comparable cell densities could be obtained but only at slower growth rates. Morphologically T. barossii is coccoid-shaped, forming irregularly-shaped spheres; under optimal conditions, these coccoids become more regular and smaller, a characteristic of other hyperthermophilic archaea. Negatively-stained preparations showed no pill or flagella associated with the cell surface. 16S rRNA sequencing reveals that T. barossii is most similar to Thermococcus celer (99.7%). Yet, further comparisons with T celer showed that T. barossii is a new Thermococcus species: different growth temperature optimum (82.5 degrees C vs. 88 degrees C), ol>ligatr requirement for suifur, higher G+C content (60% vs. 56.7%) and 47.7% DNA-DNA hybridization. The nucleotide and translated amino acid sequence for the gene encoding a DNA polymerase from T. barossii was compared to sequences of related genes from other Thermococcales. The polymerase phylogenies were congruent with those obtained from the 16S rRNA phylogenetic analyses. Based on the high degree of similarity among members of the genus Termococcus for the criteria used thus far, aspects of enzymology may be an important mechanism of differentiating one species from another.