Thermococcus henrietii sp. nov., a novel extreme thermophilic and piezophilic sulfur-reducing archaeon isolated from a deep-sea hydrothermal chimney.

A novel extreme thermophilic and piezophilic chemoorganoheterotrophic archaeon, strain EXT12c ^T , was isolated from a hydrothermal chimney sample collected at a depth of 2496 m at the East Pacific Rise 9° N. Cells were strictly anaerobic, motile cocci. The strain grew at NaCl concentrations ranging from 1 to 5 % (w/v; optimum, 2.0%), from pH 6.0 to 7.5 (optimum, pH 6.5-7.0), at temperatures between 60 and 95 °C (optimum, 80-85 °C), and at pressures from 0.1 to at least 50 MPa (optimum, 30 MPa). Strain EXT12c ^T grew chemoorganoheterotrophically on complex proteinaceous substrates. Its growth was highly stimulated by the presence of elemental sulphur or l-cystine, which were reduced to hydrogen sulfide. The DNA G+C content was 54.58 mol%. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences and concatenated ribosomal protein sequences showed that strain EXT12c ^T falls into the genus Thermococcus and is most closely related to Thermococcus nautili strain 30-1 ^T . Overall genome relatedness index analyses (average nucleotide identity scores and in silico DNA-DNA hybridizations) showed a sufficient genomic distance between the new genome and the ones of the Thermococcus type strains for the delineation of a new species. On the basis of genotypic and phenotypic data, strain EXT12c ^T is considered to represent a novel species, for which the name Thermococcus henrietii sp. nov. is proposed, with the type strain EXT12c ^T (=UBOCC M-2417 ^T =DSM 111004 ^T ).