Aciduliprofundum boonei

Aciduliprofundum boonei
Scientific classification
Domain:	Archaea
Kingdom:	Euryarchaeota
Phylum:	Euryarchaeota
Class:	DHVE2
Genus:	Aciduliprofundum
Species:	A. boonei
Binomial name
Aciduliprofundum boonei (Reysenbach et al. 2006)

Aciduliprofundum boonei is an obligate thermoacidophilic archaea belonging to the phylum Euryarchaeota. Isolated from acidic hydrothermal vent environments, A. boonei is the first cultured representative of a biogeochemically significant clade of thermoacidophilic archaea known as the “Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vent Euryarchaeota 2 (DHVE2)”.

A. boonei is an obligate thermoacidophile capable of growing at pH 3.3-5.8, with its optimum zone being 4.2-4.8. Cultures have been shown to grow between 55-77 °C with best growth occurring at 70 °C with a 2.5-3.5% (w/v) NaCl optimum.

Morphologically, the archaeon has been described as a pleiomorphic cocci with a diameter of 0.6-1.0μm, that is motile via a singular, proximally sheathed flagellum. A. boonei cells are enveloped by a plasma membrane and a single S-layer, which is structurally comparable to that of Picrophilus oshimae. Despite the common belief that S-layers are quasi-crystalline, the S-layer of ‘’A. boonei’’ demonstrates visible plasticity and is capable of bending into small, highly curved structures resembling vesicles. Budding from the cell, these spherical components can segregate small quantities of cytoplasm and travel extracellularly until they combine with neighboring cells. Other visual observations, through transmission electron microscopy, of A. boonei have depicted these vesicles as budding off the cell in chains. In other bacteria and archaea vesicles such as these are produced to remove misfolded proteins or toxins during periods of stress, to shuttle mRNA, cell-cell communication, and to deliver virulence factors. The biogeochemical significance of the energy demanding process of budding has yet to be identified in this species.

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