Domain Archaea Phylum Euryarchaeota Rank Class | Kingdom Euryarchaeota Higher classification Euryarchaeota | |
Similar Archaeans, Euryarchaeota, Nanohaloarchaea, Lokiarchaeota, Aigarchaeota | ||
Hadesarchaea, formerly called the South-African Gold Mine Miscellaneous Euryarchaeal Group, are a class of thermophile microorganisms that have been found in deep mines, hot springs and other subterranean environments.
Contents
Nomenclature
These archea were initially called South-African Gold Mine Miscellaneous Euryarchaeal Group (SAGMEG) after their initial site of discovery. The name Hadesarchaea was proposed by Baker et al. in 2016, a reference to the Greek god of the underworld.
Genome
Shotgun sequencing has shown the genome of Hadesarchaea to be approximately 1.5 Megabase pairs in size, about .5 Mbp smaller than most archea.
Habitat and metabolism
These microbes were first discovered in a gold mine in South Africa at a depth of approximately 3 km (2 mi), where they are able to live without oxygen or light. They were later also found in the White Oak River estuary in North Carolina and in Yellowstone National Park's Lower Culex Basin. These areas are approximately 70 °C (158 °F) and highly alkaline.
Hadesarchaea are unique among known archaea in that they can convert carbon monoxide and water to carbon dioxide and oxygen, producing hydrogen as a by-product. In other ways, they are similar to anerobic euryarchaeotic bacteria. Initial research suggests that these organisms are also involved in significant geochemical processes.