Search results for "Hyperthermophile"
showing 2 items of 2 documents
Did the ancient crenarchaeal viruses from the dawn of life survive exceptionally well the eons of meteorite bombardment?
2009
The viruses of Crenarchaeota are unexpectedly diverse in their morphologies, and most have no, or few, genes related to bacterial, eukaryal, euryarchaeal, or other crenarchaeal viruses. Though several different virus morphotypes have been discovered in enrichment cultures of microbial communities collected from geothermally heated environments around the world, the origins of such differences are unknown. We present a model that combines consideration of Earth's geological history, the early emergence of hyperthermophiles, and the early formation of viruses from primordial genes with the intent to explain this vast diversity of crenarchaeal viruses. Several meteorite- or flood basalt-induce…
Substrate pathways and mechanisms of inhibition in the sulfur oxygenase reductase of Acidianus ambivalens
2011
Background: The sulfur oxygenase reductase (SOR) is the initial enzyme of the sulfur oxidation pathway in the thermoacidophilic Archaeon Acidianus ambivalens. The SOR catalyzes an oxygen-dependent sulfur disproportionation to H2S, sulfite and thiosulfate. The spherical, hollow, cytoplasmic enzyme is composed of 24 identical subunits with an active site pocket each comprising a mononuclear non-heme iron site and a cysteine persulfide. Substrate access and product exit occur via apolar chimney-like protrusions at the four-fold symmetry axes, via narrow polar pores at the three-fold symmetry axes and via narrow apolar pores within in each subunit. In order to investigate the function of the po…