Thermus aquaticus

Thermus aquaticus

Thermus aquaticus is one of the thermophilic ( heat-loving ), gram negative bacteria living in hot springs and geysers, for example, in Yellowstone National Park. There, near the Great Fountain Geyser, the bacterium was discovered by researchers at the Indiana University in 1969. The ambient temperature in these sources is about 50 to 80 ° C. Thermus aquaticus is dependent on oxygen ( aerobic), nutrition amino acids, sugars, various organic acids or mixtures are used by other substances. The bacterium is so chemoorganotroph, it needs organic substances for nutrition.

In the cell wall peptidoglycan of Thermus a is contained in the diaminopimelic acid is replaced by ornithine.

T. aquaticus has been known since 1988 by its thermostable DNA polymerase ( called after his name as Taq polymerase or Taq short pole), which greatly simplifies the polymerase chain reaction ( PCR) to amplify the DNA. This thermostable enzyme survives the denaturation step and the polymerase does not need to be added newly in each cycle.