THE COMPLETE GENOME OF THE HYPERTHERMOPHILIC BACTERIUM AQUIFEX AEOLICUS

Aquifex aeolicus was one of the earliest diverging, and is one of the most thermophilic, bacteria known. It can grow on hydrogen, oxygen, ca rbon dioxide, and mineral salts. The complex metabolic machinery neede d for A. aeolicus to function as a chemolithoautotroph (an organism wh ich uses an inorganic carbon source for biosynthesis and an inorganic chemical energy source) is encoded within a genome that is only one-th ird the size of the E, coli genome, Metabolic flexibility seems Po be reduced as a result of the limited genome size, The use of oxygen (alb eit at very low concentrations) as an electron acceptor is allowed by the presence of a complex respiratory apparatus. Although this organis m grows at 95 degrees C, the extreme thermal limit of the Bacteria, on ly a few specific indications of thermophily are apparent from the gen ome. Here we describe the complete genome sequence of 1,551,335 base p airs of this evolutionarily and physiologically interesting organism.