How+They+May+Affect+Us



**// Discovery / Classification //** In 1966, biologist Thomas Brock from the University of Wisconsin, in Madison, was studying the hot-springs of Yellowstone National Park, and made and amazing discovery ... The thermophile. The specific species discovered was named by him - the Thermus aquaticus, literally "from hot water"This organism could survive temperatures hotter than any other organism known, around 170°F. That's almost boiling point. The discoveries at this point of history mainly involved enzymes, and no surprise was shown when this microbe showed enzymatic properties that could break down DNA.

This microbe was later studied by Dr. Woese, who after carefully examining one of the genes that should be present in all creature, determined that this was a whole new type. Originally, there were only two groups of classification, or kingdoms: Plants and Animals. Soon, it became five kingdoms originally within plants and animals, animals, plants, fungi, bacteria, and protists. Later it became Eukarya, the class that includes all multicellular beings: animals, plants, fungi, and protists; and Bacteria, the unicellular. After this discovery, kingdoms expanded to become larger groups, or domains, and a third was added. Dr. Woese named this domain Archaebacteria, later to become Archaea, which means: "Ancient Things". There are three phyla of archaea, Thaumarchaeota, Korarchaeota, meaning "young ancient things", and Nanoarchaeota, meaning "small ancient things". Nanoarchaeota only includes one species - Nanoarchaeum Equitans, found in a hydrothermal vent in 2002 by Karl Stetter. Korarchaeota only includes hyperthermophiles, which need about 150°F + to survive.

**// Uses //** media type="youtube" key="2KoLnIwoZKU" height="408" width="728" align="center"

You don't have to be an Einstein, to learn about how thermophiles can help us. Geothermal features such as Iceland's hot-springs has been used in human civilization for a long time. Long ago, in Iceland, they would wash clothes, cook food, and even bake bread in them. Pipes would also be built from the hot springs to houses, and the end of the pipe was called a cistern. And oven would be connected to the cistern, heat the water even more, and circulate inside the house. Even today, geothermal heat is a source of energy, for example the Svartsengi power plant, located near the town of Grindavik on the Rekjanes peninsula, takes advantage of Iceland's abundant geothermal features. The plant utilizes the high temperature geothermal field located along the tectonic plate boundary to produce steam which in turn drives turbines to produce electricity.

Also, Thermus aquaticus, the distinguishing red archaebacteria from Yellowstone's hot springs, has the function to help us complete DNA fingerprinting and other crime scene related incidents. It does this through Polymerase Chain Reaction, or PCR. Through enzymes, it breaks down DNA, then amplifies it. In the video above, the enzyme is represented by the blue enzyme Taq, for __Th__ermus __aq__uaticus.

That's still not all, Pyrococcus Furiosus has many applications, and is known for it's endurance in laboratories. It can provide, like Thermus aquaticus, DNA Polymerase, for PCR, and can be used to make many other diols like food, pharmaceuticals, and fine-chemicals in which alcohol dehydrogenase are necessary in the production of "pure" diols. It is also used in agriculture. Some of the enzymes and proteins made in P. furiosus are altered in a laboratory to fit genetically in plants, so they can then increase the heat tolerance in the plants and product. Also, by comparing Pyrococcus furiosus with a similar barophile, Pyrococcus abyssi, research on amino acids was significantly sped up. The thermophiles in Yellowstone, can be used for more purposes than you think, actually. For example some thermophiles are being used this instant, in genetic engineering projects, in paper processing plants, to de-ice roads, to convert organic wast into fuel, in mining, food processing, and even in perfumes. Yellowstone, after seeing many discoveries in it's grounds, wants to claim up to 1.5% of the discoveries'' income, which could provide the park with millions of dollars a year.

[[image:bacteriaCulture.jpg align="left" caption="This Bacterial Culture, grown in a lab, resembles one of the archaean cultures."]]
=// Collection: //=

Collection of thermophiles, how could you possibly safely remove creatures from an 185° F degree hot spring? Well, Tom figured it out!

When Tom Brock was researching the thermophiles of Yellowstone, he used a couple of simple but effective collection techniques, one of which was mostly involving Pyrex. He would dip a clean glass tube inside the hot spring, and after taking it out, he would wait a few days for the colonies of thermophiles to develop.n The sides would then be covered in a thin film-like substance, that showed that the thermophiles were doing well and reproducing. One of the other methods was to imitate the natural habitat by providing the water with nutrients, and incubate it with the natural temperature of the hot spring,(65°C-85°C, or about 150°F-185°F) The colonies created by these methods were called pure cultures pure cell lines,for being like clones. In the laboratory, once the pure cultures were established, the effects of temperature, pH, substance and even the amount of oxygen in the water were tested. Results recorded by Tom Brock showed that many of the thermophiles not only survived but also required these extreme conditions.

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