Sulfolobus
SuperSet Prokaryote, Archaea, Extremely Thermophilic Archaeobacteria
Compare Acidianus Desulfurococcus, Desulfurolobus ambivalens Hyperthermus butylicus , Metallosphaera sedula Pyrobaculum Pyrococcus, Pyrodictium Staphylothermus marinus Sulfolobus Thermococcus Thermodiscus maritimus Thermofilum, Thermoproteus
Contrast Methanogens
Cell Wall-Less Archaeobacteria
Sulfate Reducing Archaeobacteria
Halophilic Archaeobacteria
Extremely Thermophilic Archaeobacteria
Subset  

 

Morphology Sulfolobus
CELLULAR  
Staining  
Morphology Cells coccoid, highly irregular, about 0.8-2 um in diameter, usually occurring singly
Motility nonmotile
Specialized structures .. Cell envelope composed of protein subunits in hexagonal array (Weiss 1974; Taylor et al. 1982
Division  
COLONIAL  
Solid surface  
Liquid  

 

Growth Parameters Sulfolobus
PHYSIOLOGICAL  
Tropism Lithotrophic Organotrophic growth by oxidizing complex organic material (eg. yeast extract), sugars or amino acids (Brock 1978).
Oxygen Aerobic growth via oxidation of sulfur, sulfide or tetrathionate (Brock et al. 1972; Shivvers and Brock 1973; Wood et al. 1987). No anaerobic growth via S` reduction.
pH Thermoacidophilic, grows and at pH 1-6.
Temperature Thermoacidophilic, grows above 50`C
Requirements  
Products  
Enzymes  
Unique features Isopranyl ether lipids, calditol and caldariella quinone present (Langworthy 1985). Elongation factor 2 is ADP-ribosylated by diphtheria toxin (Kessel and Klink 1982)
ENVIRONMENTAL  
Habitat  
Lifestyle  
Pathogenicity  
Distribution  

 

Genome Sulfolobus
G+C Mol % 36-38
   

 

Reference Sulfolobus
First citation Brock, T.D., K.M. Brock, R.T. Belly and R.L. Weiss. 1972. Sulfolobus: a new genus of sulfur-oxidizing bacteria living at low pH and high temperature. Arch. Microbiol 84:54-68
The Prokaryotes  
Bergey's Systematatic p 2250 A. Segerer and K. O. Stetter
Bergey's Determinative p 750
References