Species InformationThe Sulfolobus islandicus M.16.4 genome is 2.59 Million bp long and contains approximately 2869 predicted genes.
Taxonomy: Archaea; Crenarchaeota; Thermoprotei; Sulfolobales; Sulfolobaceae; Sulfolobus.
Sequencing: The sequence was released May 2009 and was described in Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 106:8605-10 (2009) Reno ML, Held NL, Fields CJ, Burke PV, Whitaker RJ,."Biogeography of the Sulfolobus islandicus pan-genome." Abstract: Variation in gene content has been hypothesized to be the primary mode of adaptive evolution in microorganisms; however, very little is known about the spatial and temporal distribution of variable genes. Through population-scale comparative genomics of 7 Sulfolobus islandicus genomes from 3 locations, we demonstrate the biogeographical structure of the pan-genome of this species, with no evidence of gene flow between geographically isolated populations. The evolutionary independence... [Click above reference link for full abstract] Isolation: Science 301:976-8 (2003) Whitaker RJ, Grogan DW, Taylor JW, "Geographic barriers isolate endemic populations of hyperthermophilic archaea." Abstract: Barriers to dispersal between populations allow them to diverge through local adaptation or random genetic drift. High-resolution multilocus sequence analysis revealed that, on a global scale, populations of hyperthermophilic microorganisms are isolated from one another by geographic barriers and have diverged over the course of their recent evolutionary history. The identification of a biogeographic pattern in the archaeon Sulfolobus challenges the current model of microbial... [Click above reference link for full abstract] Sequenced related species/strains: Metallosphaera sedula DSM 5348, Sulfolobus acidocaldarius DSM 639, Sulfolobus islandicus, Sulfolobus islandicus, Sulfolobus islandicus M.16.27, Sulfolobus islandicus Y.G.57.14, Sulfolobus islandicus Y.N.15.51, Sulfolobus solfataricus P2, Sulfolobus tokodaii str. 7 | Browse Specific Gene/Feature Sets |