PYROCOCCUS FURIOSUS

'''Pyrococcus furiosus''' is an extremophilic species of Archaea. It is notable for having an optimum growth temperature of 100ºC (a temperature which would destroy most living organisms), and for being one of the few organisms identified as possessing enzymes containing tungsten, an element rarely found in biological molecules.

Contents

Properties

Uses

Discovery

Genome

The extremophile's scientific name

References

Properties

''Pyrococcus furiosus'' is noted for its rapid doubling time of 37 minutes under optimal conditions.
It appears as mostly regular cocci of 0.8 µm to 1.5 µm diameter with
monopolar polytrichous flagellation. It grows between 70 ºC and 103 ºC,
with an optimum temperature of 100 ºC, and between pH 5 and 9 (with an optimum at
pH 7). It grows well on yeast extract, maltose, cellobiose, β-glucans, starch, and protein
sources (tryptone, peptone, casein and meat extracts). Growth is very slow, or nonexistent,
on amino acids, organic acids, alcohols, and most carbohydrates (including
glucose, fructose, lactose and galactose).
The ability to grow on polysaccharides (maltose, cellobiose, starch) but not on
the monomeric sugars suggests that oligosaccharides with various degrees of
polymerization may be imported into the cell, and only afterwards hydrolyzed to
glucose.

Uses

The enzymes of ''Pyrococcus furiosus'' are extremely thermostable. Consequently DNA Polymerase from ''Pyrococcus furiosus'', are often used in the Polymerase Chain Reaction, with the relevant enzyme is known as Pfu.

Discovery

''Pyrococcus furiosus'' was originally isolated anaerobically from geothermally heated marine sediments with temperatures between 90 ºC and 100 ºC collected at the beach of Porto Levante, Vulcano Island, Italy. It was first described by Dr Karl Stetter of the University of Regensburg in Germany, and a colleague, Dr Gerhard Fiala.

Genome

The sequencing of the complete genome of ''Pyrococcus furiosus'' was completed in 2001 by scientists at the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute The Maryland team found that the genome had 1,908 kilobases, coding for some 2,065 proteins.

The extremophile's scientific name

The name ''Pyrococcus'' means "fireberry" in Greek, to refer to the extremophile's round shape and ability to grow in temperatures of around 100 degrees Celsius. The species name ''furiosus'' means 'rushing' in Latin, and refers to the extremophile's doubling time.

References

★ ''Pyrococcus furiosus'' sp. nov. represents a novel genus of marine heterotrophic archaebacteria growing optimally at 100°C, Fiala G. and Stetter K.O., , , Archives of Microbiology, 1986

★ Genomic sequence of hyperthermophile, ''Pyrococcus furiosus'': implications for physiology and enzymology, Robb F.T., Maeder D.L., Brown J.R., DiRuggiero J., Stump M.D., Yeh R.K., Weiss R.B., Dunn D.M., , , Methods in Enzymology, 2001