Thermus thermophilus is a gram negative eubacterium , aerobic used in a range of biotechnological applications, including as a
model organismA model organism is a species that is extensively studied to understand particular biological phenomena, with the expectation that discoveries made in the organism model will provide insight into the workings of other organisms...
for genetic manipulation,
structural genomicsThe aim of structural genomics is the determination of the primary and tertiary structures of all proteins of a given organism, by experimental methods such as X-ray crystallography, NMR spectroscopy or computational approaches such as homology modelling....
, and
systems biologySystems biology is a biology-based inter-disciplinary study field that focuses on the systematic study of complex interactions in biological systems, thus using a new perspective to study them. Particularly from year 2000 onwards, the term is used widely in the biosciences, and in a variety of...
. The bacterium is extremely
thermophilicA thermophile is an organism — a type of extremophile — that thrives at relatively high temperatures, between 45 and 80 °C...
, with an optimal growth temperature of about 65ºC-75ºC.
Thermus thermophilus was originally isolated from a thermal vent environment in
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
by Tairo Oshima and Kazutomo Imahori.
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Thermus thermophilus is a gram negative eubacterium , aerobic used in a range of biotechnological applications, including as a
model organismA model organism is a species that is extensively studied to understand particular biological phenomena, with the expectation that discoveries made in the organism model will provide insight into the workings of other organisms...
for genetic manipulation,
structural genomicsThe aim of structural genomics is the determination of the primary and tertiary structures of all proteins of a given organism, by experimental methods such as X-ray crystallography, NMR spectroscopy or computational approaches such as homology modelling....
, and
systems biologySystems biology is a biology-based inter-disciplinary study field that focuses on the systematic study of complex interactions in biological systems, thus using a new perspective to study them. Particularly from year 2000 onwards, the term is used widely in the biosciences, and in a variety of...
. The bacterium is extremely
thermophilicA thermophile is an organism — a type of extremophile — that thrives at relatively high temperatures, between 45 and 80 °C...
, with an optimal growth temperature of about 65ºC-75ºC.
Thermus thermophilus was originally isolated from a thermal vent environment in
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
by Tairo Oshima and Kazutomo Imahori. The organism has also been found to be important in the degradation of organic materials in the thermogenic phase of
compostingComposting is the purposeful biodegradation of organic matter, such as yard and food waste. The decomposition is performed by micro-organisms, mostly bacteria, but also yeasts and fungi...
.
T. thermophilus is classified into several strains, in which HB8 and HB27 are most common and their genome analyses were independently completed in 2004.
Biotechnological applications of Thermus thermophilus enzymes
- rTth DNA polymerase is a recombinant thermostable DNA polymerase derived from Thermus thermophilus, with optimal activity at 70-80ºC, used in some PCR
In molecular biology, the polymerase chain reaction is a technique to amplify a single or few copies of a piece of DNA across several orders of magnitude, generating thousands to millions of copies of a particular DNA sequence...
applications. The enzymeEnzymes are proteins that catalyze chemical reactions. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process are called substrates, and the enzyme converts them into different molecules, called the products. Almost all processes in a biological cell need enzymes to occur at...
possesses efficient reverse transcriptaseIn molecular biology and biochemistry, a reverse transcriptase, also known as RNA-dependent DNA polymerase, is a DNA polymerase enzyme that transcribes single-stranded RNA into single-stranded DNA. It also helps in the formation of a double helix DNA once the RNA has been reverse transcribed into a...
activity in the presence of manganeseManganese is a chemical element, designated by the symbol Mn. It has the atomic number 25. It is found as a free element in nature , and in many minerals...
.
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