This is potentially very interesting -
Diversa Announces Completion of Sequencing of Pyrolobus fumarii Genome; Genetic Information Sequenced for World's Highest Temperature Organism
SAN DIEGO, Sept. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Diversa Corporation (Nasdaq: DVSA - news) today announced the completion of the sequencing of the Pyrolobus fumarii genome. The work was completed with Celera Genomics (NYSE: CRA - news), an Applera Corporation business. The sequence of P. fumarii is expected to contribute to the discovery of thermostable agricultural, chemical, and chiral pharmaceutical products. This is the second genome-sequencing project that Diversa and Celera have completed under the collaborative agreement signed in December of 2000. The first milestone, the completion of the sequencing of the Streptomyces diversa(TM) genome, was announced in February of this year and is expected to enable faster discovery and development of novel molecules of pharmaceutical interest from Diversa's PathwayLibrary(TM) collections. Pyrolobus fumarii was first identified in the laboratory of Professor Karl Stetter of the University of Regensburg, who has been a member of Diversa's Scientific Advisory Board since its founding.
P. fumarii was discovered in the wall of a black smoker, or a deep-sea hydrothermal vent formed by sulfur-bearing minerals from beneath the Earth's crust, located in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The organism grows at temperatures between 90 degrees C and 113 degrees C, the highest temperature recorded for an organism to date. P. fumarii grows optimally at 106 degrees C, or six degrees above the boiling point of water. Consequently, the gene products recovered from this genome are expected to be extremely thermostable, or heat-tolerant. Applications for such highly thermostable products include many animal feed additives, agricultural product processing enzymes, and industrial and consumer product enzymes, which are targets for Diversa's joint venture agreements with Syngenta (Zymetrics) and The Dow Chemical Company (Innovase).
P. fumarii, an obligate chemolithoautotroph, is able to survive on inorganic chemicals, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide. Accordingly, the genome of this organism is expected to contain many novel metabolic enzymes of commercial interest. The genome of P. fumarii was found to be 1.85Mbp in length and contains approximately 2,000 genes. Initial sequence annotation has revealed an unusually high number of genes with no obvious similarity to previously described genes from eubacteria and archaea. The novelty of the organism's genes is expected to yield similarly unique gene products, some of which have already been characterized by Diversa... |
