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Genomics

Use your neighbour's genes

Nature volume 407, pages 466–467 (2000)Cite this article

On page 508 of this issue, Ruepp and colleagues1 describe the complete genome sequence of the acid- and heat-loving microorganism Thermoplasma acidophilum . This hardy organism, which lacks a cell wall, grows best on organic substrates at pH 2 and 59 °C. It was first isolated, in the late 1960s, from a self-heating ore pile2; such ore piles generate heat through internal microbial activity.

Microbial physiologists and structural biologists have long been fascinated by the ability of this microorganism to grow at high temperatures and low pH without the structural protection of a conventional cell wall. T. acidophilum is also interesting from an evolutionary perspective. Its cellular morphology seems primitive, and it contains complexes involved in protein folding, degradation and turnover that look like simple versions of related structures in eukaryotic cells (loosely, those cells with a nucleus — the type of cell that makes up higher organisms such as you and me). These facts intrigue evolutionary biologists, who have speculated that T. acidophilum is an ancestor of the eukaryotic cell.

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Figure 1: The three domains of life, showing how Thermoplasma acidophilum — the latest archaeon whose genome has been sequenced1 — fits into the evolutionary scheme of things.

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  1. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK

    Don Cowan

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  1. Don Cowan
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Correspondence to Don Cowan.

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Cowan, D. Use your neighbour's genes. Nature 407, 466–467 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35035195

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