Thermoplasma acidophilum is an archaeon, the type species of its genus.DARLAND (G.), BROCK (T.D.), SAMSONOFF (W.) and CONTI (S.F.): A thermophilic, acidophilic mycoplasma isolated from a coal refuse pile. Science (Washington), 1970, 170, 1416–1418. Unlike most organisms, its MVA pathway involves (R)-mevalonate-3-phosphate and (R)-mevalonate-3,5-bisphosphate.Vinokur JM, Korman TP, Cao Z, Bowie JU (2014) Evidence of a novel mevalonate pathway in archaea. Biochemistry 53:4161–4168.Azami Y, Hattori A, Nishimura H, Kawaide H, YoshimuraT, Hemmi H (2014) (R)-mevalonate-3-phosphate is an intermediate of the mevalonate pathway in Thermoplasma acidophilum. J Biol Chem 289:15957–15967.
T. acidophilum was originally isolated from a self-heating coal refuse pile, at pH 2 and 59 °C. It is highly flagellated and grows optimally at and pH 1.8. The size of a cell is about 1 μm. T. acidophilum lacks a cell wall and the cell membrane is exposed directly outside. T. acidophilum shows various cell shapes depending upon growth conditions and stages.
The full genome of Thermoplasma acidophilum has been sequenced. It is only 1,565 kb in size.
See also Thermoplasma volcanium
References
Further reading
External links
LPSN Type strain of Thermoplasma acidophilum at BacDive - the Bacterial Diversity Metadatabase