Thermotogae Reysenbach 2002
General information
Description and emendation
Extremely thermophilic rod-shaped bacteria, non-spore-forming; Gram negative with an outer sheath-like envelope of 'toga'. The members are all anaerobic and fermentative. The phylum is represented by a single class and a single order.
1: This phylum is comprised of anaerobic thermophilic, hyperthermophilic and mesophilic bacteria. They are generally rod-shaped but can also have coccoid morphology. Members of this phylum can ferment a broad range of organic substrates including complex organics such as yeast extract. All bacteria are characterized by the presence of an outer sheath-like envelope referred to as a 'toga'. Although these bacteria stain Gram-negative, they lack a lipopolysac-charide-based outer cell membrane. The phylum contains a single class and three orders; its type order is Thermotogales. The bacteria from this phylum can be distinguished from all other bacteria examined to date by the conserved signature indels in the following proteins: Ribosomal proteins L4, L7/L12, S8 and S9; DNA polymerase I; ribonucleoside-dipho-sphate reductase; septum-site determining protein MinD; chromosome replication initiation protein DnaA; adenylosuccinate synthetase; aspartate ammonia-lyase (AspA), and the MazG family protein.