Journal Article
Science, vol. 322, iss. 5899, pp. 275-278, 2008
Authors
Dylan Chivian, Eoin L. Brodie, Eric J. Alm, David E. Culley, Paramvir S. Dehal, Todd Z. DeSantis, Thomas M. Gihring, Alla Lapidus, Li-Hung Lin, Stephen R. Lowry, Duane P. Moser, Paul M. Richardson, Gordon Southam, Greg Wanger, Lisa M. Pratt, Gary L. Andersen, Terry C. Hazen, Fred J. Brockman, Adam P. Arkin, Tullis C. Onstott
Abstract
DNA from low-biodiversity fracture water collected at 2.8-kilometer depth in a South African gold mine was sequenced and assembled into a single, complete genome. This bacterium,
Candidatus Desulforudis audaxviator
, composes >99.9% of the microorganisms inhabiting the fluid phase of this particular fracture. Its genome indicates a motile, sporulating, sulfate-reducing, chemoautotrophic thermophile that can fix its own nitrogen and carbon by using machinery shared with archaea.
Candidatus Desulforudis audaxviator
is capable of an independent life-style well suited to long-term isolation from the photosphere deep within Earth's crust and offers an example of a natural ecosystem that appears to have its biological component entirely encoded within a single genome.
