Galdieria sulphuraria

Galdieria sulphuraria
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Rhodophyta
Class:	Cyanidiophyceae
Order:	Cyanidiales
Family:	Galdieriaceae
Genus:	Galdieria
Species:	Galdieria sulphuraria
Binomial name
Galdieria sulphuraria Merola, 1982

Galdieria sulphuraria is an extremophilic unicellular species of red algae. It is the type species of the genus Galdieria. It is known for its broad metabolic capacities, including photosynthesis and heterotrophic growth on over 50 different extracellular carbon sources. The members of the class Cyanidiophyceae are among the most acidophilic known photosynthetic organisms, and the growth conditions of G. sulphuraria – pH between 0 and 4, and temperatures up to 56 °C – are among the most extreme known for eukaryotes. Analysis of its genome suggests that its thermoacidophilic adaptations derive from horizontal gene transfer from archaea and bacteria, another rarity among eukaryotes.

Published descriptions of thermoacidophilic unicellular algae date to the mid-19th century. The earliest description of an organism corresponding to the modern G. sulphuraria was published in 1899 by an Italian scientist, A. Galdieri, who gave it the name Pleurococcus sulphurarius. The taxonomy of thermoacidophilic algae was revised in 1982, which introduced the genus Galdieria and gave the organism its modern designation.G. sulphuraria is the type species for this genus.

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