Hello all, this is Tae’lor Jones from the 2019 Hiram College Genetics course, and today on this episode I will reveal some interesting information on the genome Thermotoga maritima MSB8, which I will refer to as T. maritima from here on out. So, sit back and fasten your seat belts because you’re going to learn all the incredible wonders of this amazing organism just within 3-5 minutes! T. maritima, a non- spore- forming, or in other words non-pathogenic, rod -shaped bacterium belonging to the order Thermotogales, was originally isolated from a geothermal heated marine sediment near Vulcano, Italy, and has an optimum growth temperature of 80ºC (176ºF). Though it is capable of growing in waters of 55-90ºC (131-194ºF) this is the only bacterium known to grow at such a high temperature; the only other organism known to live in environments this extreme are members of the domain, Archaea. This similarity suggests that a lateral gene transfer may have occurred between thermophilic Eubacteria and Archaea within ancient times. To further explain T. maritima’s unique evolutionary relationship to other microbial species the genome was sequenced from the type strain T. maritima MSB8, which was utilized, and when using the whole-genome random sequencing method to identify this lateral relationship you would not believe what was discovered. 

 Before pondering on the amazing discovery lets discuss some general features of the genome T. maritima. While being a single circular chromosome consisting of 1,860,725 base pairs and encoding for 1,877 proteins within its genome it has several heat and cold shock proteins that are most likely involved in metabolic regulation and response to environmental temperature changes (2). Of the eubacteria sequenced to date, T. maritima has the highest percentage (24%) of genes that are most similar to archaeal genes. Eighty-one archaeal like genes are clustered in 15 regions of the T. maritima genome that ranges in size from 4 to 20 kilobases. Due to conservation of gene order between T. maritima and Archaea in many of the clustered regions unraveled the amazing discovery of the lateral relationship between Eubacteria and Archaea (2). Genome analysis also discovered numerous pathways involved in the degradation of sugars and plant polysaccharides suggesting that the environment in which T. maritima is found is rich in organic material, with the predominant mechanism of transport being ATP (2). While making all these tremendous findings highly important in stabilizing the fluidity of the membrane at such high temperatures. 

 While listening to this episode I know you’ll may be wondering how this organism serves any relevance within the world and why one should be so intrigued about understanding its magical works. Well, your curiosities are about to be unfolded. As an anaerobic fermentative chemoorganotrophic organism, simply referring to a requirement of an organic source of carbon and metabolic energy (2). T maritima catabolizes sugars and polymers and produces carbon dioxide and hydrogen gas as by-products of fermentation, for review the meaning of fermentation is defined as a metabolic process that produces chemical changes in organic substrates through the action of enzymes. This organism is also capable of metabolizing cellulose as well as xylan: a polysaccharide found in plant cell walls, yielding H2 (hydrogen gas) that could potentially be utilized as an alternative energy source to fossil fuels (2). Additionally, this species of bacteria can reduce Fe (III) to produce energy using anaerobic respiration (2). Collectively, these attributes indicate that T. maritima has become resourceful and capable of metabolizing a host of substances in order to carry out its life processes. 

 Since the initial findings of this organism’s genome many experiments have been conducted with the utilization of T. maritimas genome sequence. For instance, Swapnil et al. grew this hyperthermophilic bacterium on a variety of carbohydrates to determine the influence of carbon and energy source on differential gene expression (3). With the wide-ranging collection of such networks in T. maritima allowed one to suggest the capabilities of this organism being able to adapt to a variety of growth environments containing carbohydrate growth substrates (3). Shannon et al. discovered that beyond the information obtained for T. maritima, expression-based strategies can be used for improving genome annotation in other microorganisms, especially those for which genetic systems are unavailable (1). All of which was empathized after a comprehensive analysis of genome wide expression patterns during growth of the hyperthermophilic bacterium T. maritima on 14 monosaccharides and polysaccharide substrates that were undertaken with the goal of proposing carbohydrate specificities for transport systems and transcriptional regulators (1). 
 Who would’ve known that this rod-shaped organism within the outer membrane of the cell would demonstrate such complexity? While being the only known organism to live in such extreme environments to do so. Thanks for listening. 

References:
(1) Conners, Shannon B.; Montero, Clemente I.; Comfort, Donald A.; Shockley, Keith R.; Johnson, Matthew R.; Chhabra, Swapnil R.; Kelly, Robert M. (2005). “An Expression Driven Approach to the Prediction of Carbohydrate Transport and Utilization Regulons in the Hyperthermophilic Bacterium Thermotoga maritima” Journal of Bacteriology. 187(21): 7267-7282.
(2) Karen E. Nelson; Rebecca A. Clayton; Steven R. Gill; Michelle L. Gwinn; Robert J. Dodson; et al (1999). “Evidence for lateral gene transfer between Archaea and Bacteria from genome sequence of Thermotoga maritima” Nature. 399 (6734), 323-329.
(3) Swapnil et al (2003). Carbohydrate-induced differential gene expression patterns in the hyperthermophilic bacterium Thermotoga maritima. The Journal of Biological Chemistry. 278:7540-7552