''Picrophilus'' is a genus of

archaea Archaea ( ) is a Domain (biology), domain of organisms. Traditionally, Archaea only included its Prokaryote, prokaryotic members, but this has since been found to be paraphyletic, as eukaryotes are known to have evolved from archaea. Even thou ...

ns in the family

Picrophilaceae Picrophilaceae is a family (biology), family of microbes within the order Thermoplasmatales. Morphology and ecology The cells are coccus, round in shape, thermophilic, heterotrophic, and obligately aerobic organism, aerobic. This species is ac ...

. ''Picrophilus'' is an extremely

acidophilic Acidophiles or acidophilic organisms are those that thrive under highly acidic conditions (usually at pH 5.0 or below). These organisms can be found in different branches of the tree of life, including Archaea, Bacteria,Becker, A.Types of Bacteri ...

genus within

Euryarchaeota Methanobacteriota is a phylum in the domain Archaea. Taxonomy The phylum ''Methanobacteriota'' was introduced to prokaryotic nomenclature in 2023. It contains following classes: *Archaeoglobi Garrity & Holt (2002) *Halobacteria Grant ''et al ...

. These microbes are the most

organisms currently known, with the ability to grow at a pH of less than 0.5.Life in the Universe: Expectations and Constraints
/ref> They were first isolated from samples taken from acidic hot springs and dry hot soil in

Hokkaido is the list of islands of Japan by area, second-largest island of Japan and comprises the largest and northernmost prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own list of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō fr ...

(

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

). They are obligate

acidophile Acidophiles or acidophilic organisms are those that thrive under highly acidic conditions (usually at pH 5.0 or below). These organisms can be found in different branches of the Tree of life (biology), tree of life, including Archaea, Bacteria,Bec ...

s and are unable to maintain their membrane integrity at pH values above 4. While phylogenetically related to other organisms within

Thermoplasmata Thermoplasmata is a class of archaeans in the phylum Thermoplasmatota. All are acidophiles, growing optimally at pH below 2. '' Picrophilus'' is currently the most acidophilic of all known organisms growing at a minimum pH of 0.06. Many of the ...

, unlike ''

Thermoplasma ''Thermoplasma'' is a genus of archaeans.See the NCBIbr>webpage on Thermoplasma Data extracted from the It belongs to the class Thermoplasmata, which thrive in acidic and high-temperature environments. ''Thermoplasma'' are facultative anaer ...

'' and ''

Ferroplasma ''Ferroplasma'' is a genus of Archaea that belong to the family Ferroplasmaceae. Members of the ''Ferroplasma'' are typically acidophilic, pleomorphic, irregularly shaped cocci. The archaean family Ferroplasmaceae was first described in the earl ...

'', ''Picrophilus'' contains an

S-layer An S-layer (surface layer) is a part of the cell envelope found in almost all archaea, as well as in many types of bacteria. The S-layers of both archaea and bacteria consists of a Monolayer, monomolecular layer composed of only one (or, in a few c ...

cell wall.

References

External links

Picrophilus
at Lifemap NCBI Version

at OneZoom
Picrophilus
at LifeGate Archaea genera Euryarchaeota {{archaea-stub

References

Further reading

External links