''Thermococcus barophilus'' is a

piezophilic A piezophile (from Greek "piezo-" for pressure and "-phile" for loving) is an organism with optimal growth under high hydrostatic pressure, i.e., an organism that has its maximum rate of growth at a hydrostatic pressure equal to or above , when tes ...

and

hyperthermophilic A hyperthermophile is an organism that thrives in extremely hot environments—from 60 °C (140 °F) upward. An optimal temperature for the existence of hyperthermophiles is often above 80 °C (176 °F). Hyperthermophiles are of ...

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

isolated from a deep-sea

hydrothermal vent Hydrothermal vents are fissures on the seabed from which geothermally heated water discharges. They are commonly found near volcanically active places, areas where tectonic plates are moving apart at mid-ocean ridges, ocean basins, and hot ...

. It is anaerobic and sulfur-metabolising, with type strain MP^T.

Nomenclature

The name ''Thermococcus barophilus'' has Greek roots, ''thermo'' for heat, ''kokkos'' for the spherical cells, ''baros'' for weight, and ''philos'' for loving. Overall, the name means "organism with a spherical body that gravitates to heat and to the pressure of the

water column The (oceanic) water column is a concept used in oceanography to describe the physical (temperature, salinity, light penetration) and chemical ( pH, dissolved oxygen, nutrient salts) characteristics of seawater at different depths for a defined ...

Physiology

''T. barophilus'' can grow at even higher temperatures if the pressure is high, as well. At an

atmospheric pressure Atmospheric pressure, also known as air pressure or barometric pressure (after the barometer), is the pressure within the atmosphere of Earth. The standard atmosphere (symbol: atm) is a unit of pressure defined as , which is equivalent to 1,013. ...

, it can grow at temperatures of 45–90 °C, with an optimal temperature of 85 °C, but it can grow at temperatures as high as 100 °C if the

hydrostatic pressure Hydrostatics is the branch of fluid mechanics that studies fluids at hydrostatic equilibrium and "the pressure in a fluid or exerted by a fluid on an immersed body". The word "hydrostatics" is sometimes used to refer specifically to water and o ...

is 15.0–17.5 MPa. Sulfur is normally necessary for its growth, but it can also grow slowly in absence of sulfur. Membrane lipid has a major archaeol component.

Genome

The genome of ''T. barophilus'' has been sequenced and is circular in nature with a size of 2,010,078bp. It has also a circular plasmid pTBMP1. The genome sequence shows that it has the carboxydotrophic pathway and bears seven different hydrogenase complexes.

Transcriptome

The transcriptome analysis of this organism has also been done. It has been found that, 378 genes are differentially expressed in ''T. barophilus'' under different pressure conditions. Genes related to energy production and conversion, inorganic ion transport and metabolism and crabohydrate transport and metabolism are upregulated. Genes which are downregulated are involved in amino acid transport and metabolism, nucleotide transport and metabolism, replication and repair and recombination and inorganic ion transport and metabolism.

References

External links