PROPERTIES OF A HYPERTHERMOPHILIC BACTERIUM (THERMUS SP) ISOLATED FROM A CARLSBAD SPRING

A bacterial strain belonging to the species Thermus was isolated from the water of a Carlsbad hot spring at 70-73-degrees-C. The microorganism can grow aerobically and forms yellow and orange colonies on a special medium, due to a carotenoid pigment. The growth optimum is 70-75-degrees-C. The minimum and maximum temperatures for growth are 40 and 80-degrees-C, respectively. The microorganism is a Gram-negative, rod-like, immobile bacterium, its characteristic feature being the ability to form long filaments (up to 200-mu-m long). The content of guanine and cytosine in DNA is 65.1 %. This rare endemic microorganism was isolated and described in detail in Czechoslovakia for the first time. It was included in the Czechoslovak Collection of Microorganisms of the Masaryk University in Brno and is available under the catalog number of CCM 4167.