DOI

  • Xiang Zeng
  • Jean Louis Birrien
  • Yves Fouquet
  • Georgy Cherkashov
  • Mohamed Jebbar
  • Joël Querellou
  • Philippe Oger
  • Marie Anne Cambon-Bonavita
  • Xiang Xiao
  • Daniel Prieur

A novel hydrothermal site was discovered in March 2007, on the mid-Atlantic ridge during the cruise Serpentine. At a depth of 4100 m, the site Ashadze is the deepest vent field known so far. Smoker samples were collected with the ROV Victor 6000 and processed in the laboratory for the enrichment of anaerobic heterotrophic microorganisms under high-temperature and high-hydrostatic pressure conditions. Strain CH1 was successfully isolated and assigned to the genus Pyrococcus, within the Euryarchaeota lineage within the Archaea domain. This organism grows within a temperature range of 80 to 108 °C and a pressure range of 20 to 120 MPa, with optima for 98 °C and 52 MPa respectively. Pyrococcus CH1 represents the first obligate piezophilic hyperthermophilic microorganism known so far. Comparisons of growth yields obtained under high-temperature/high-pressure conditions for relative organisms isolated from various depths, showed clear relationships between depth at origin and responses to hydrostatic pressure.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)873-876
Number of pages4
JournalISME Journal
Volume3
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2009

    Research areas

  • Archaea, Deep-sea hydrothermal vent, Extremophile, High hydrostatic pressure, Thermococcales

    Scopus subject areas

  • Microbiology
  • Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

ID: 35827894