Thermus

For other uses, see Thermus (disambiguation).

Thermus is a genus of thermophilic bacteria. It is one of several bacteria belonging to the Deinococcota phylum. According to comparative analysis of 16S rRNA, this is one of the most ancient group of bacteria. ^[1] Thermus species can be distinguished from other genera in the family Thermaceae as well as all other bacteria by the presence of eight conserved signature indels found in proteins such as adenylate kinase and replicative DNA helicase as well as 14 conserved signature proteins that are exclusively shared by members of this genus.^[2]

Thermus
Thermus aquaticus
Scientific classification
Domain:	Bacteria
Kingdom:	Thermotogati
Phylum:	Deinococcota
Class:	Deinococci
Order:	Thermales
Family:	Thermaceae
Genus:	Thermus Brock & Freeze 1969
Type species
Thermus aquaticus Brock & Freeze 1969
Species
See text

Phylogeny

See also: Bacterial taxonomy

The currently accepted taxonomy is based on the List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature (LPSN) ^[3] and the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI).^[4][5][6]

Between all its species, T. thermophilus has a special importance as a model organism for basic and applied research.

16S rRNA based LTP_10_2024[7][8][9]

120 marker proteins based GTDB release 10-RS226[10][11][12]

Thermus T. oshimai Williams et al. 1996[13] T. thermophilus (ex Oshima and Imahori 1974) Manaia et al. 1995[14] T. filiformis Hudson et al. 1987[15] T. composti Vajna et al. 2012[16] T. aquaticus Brock and Freeze 1969[17] T. arciformis Zhang et al. 2010[18] T. islandicus Bjornsdottir et al. 2009[19] T. sediminis Zhou et al. 2021 T. igniterrae Chung et al. 2000[20] T. hydrothermalis Li et al. 2023 T. brockianus Williams et al. 1995[21] T. thalpophilus Li et al. 2023 T. thermamylovorans Ming et al. 2020 T. caldilimi Li et al. 2021 T. tengchongensis Yu et al. 2013[22] T. caliditerrae Ming et al. 2014[23] T. brevis Hu et al. 2022 T. tenuipuniceus Zhou et al. 2019 T. caldifontis Khan et al. 2017 T. albus Li et al. 2023 T. altitudinis Li et al. 2023 T. neutrinimicus Li et al. 2023 T. amyloliquefaciens Yu et al. 2015[24] T. antranikianii Chung et al. 2000[20] T. scotoductus Kristjansson et al. 1994[25]

Thermus T. filiformis T. oshimai T. islandicus T. aquaticus T. sediminis T. arciformis T. composti "T. parvatiensis" Dwivedi et al. 2015 T. thermophilus T. thalpophilus T. brockianus T. hydrothermalis T. igniterrae T. thermamylovorans T. caliditerrae T. tengchongensis T. amyloliquefaciens T. caldifontis T. albus T. altitudinis T. caldilimi T. neutrinimicus T. tenuipuniceus T. antranikianii T. scotoductus

Species incertae sedis:^[26]

• "T. anatoliensis" Kacagan et al. 2016
• "T. caldophilus" Taguchi et al. 1983
• "T. eggertssonii" Peters 2008
• "T. murrieta" Benner et al. 2006
• "T. nonproteolyticus" 1992
• "T. rehai" Lin et al. 2002
• "T. yunnanensis" Gong et al. 2005

Habitats

The strains of the genus Thermus are generally isolated from hydrothermal areas where the range of water temperature is 55–70 °C and that of pH is 5.0–10.5.^[27]

The first isolate of the genus Thermus was isolated from hydrothermal areas in Yellowstone National Park.^[5] Later on more isolates were obtained from several hydrothermal areas worldwide,^[27] such as in Japan,^[28][29] Iceland,^[30] New Zealand, New Mexico or the Australian Artesian Basin.

See also

• Bacteria
• Biotechnology
• Thermophiles
• Geyser
• List of bacteria genera
• List of bacterial orders