Genome variation in the hyperthermophilic archaeon Aeropyrum

Abstract

Aeropyrum spp are aerobic, heterotrophic, and hyperthermophilic marine archaea. There are two closely related Aeropyrum species, Aeropyrum camini and Aeropyrum pernix, which are isolated from geographically distinct locations. Recently, we compared their genome sequences to determine their genomic variation. They possess highly conserved small genomes, reflecting their close relationship. The entire genome similarity may result from their survival strategies in adapting to extreme environmental conditions. Meanwhile, synteny disruptions were observed in some regions including clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats elements. Further, the largest portion of their non-orthologous genes were genes in the two proviral regions of A. pernix (Aeropyrum pernix spindle-shaped virus 1 and Aeropyrum pernix ovoid virus 1) or ORFans considered to be derived from viruses. Our data shows that genomic diversification of Aeropyrum spp may be substantially induced by viruses. This suggests that Aeropyrum spp may have a large pan-genome that can be extended by viruses, while each of the species shares a highly conserved small genome specializing for extreme environments.