Nate's Notes

It was thought, before Thermus aquaticus was discovered, that life could not exist over 163 F.  Then Thomas D. Brock discovered Thermus aquaticus in thermal pools at Yellowstone in 1969.

I found that Thermus aquaticus live in temperatures or 70 - 79 ' C.

I found this really sweet site: here

I later found out hat this whole website was full of good information.  Its been pretty useful.

Thomas D. Brok maintains a lab near Yellow stone national park, and continues to do field tests in the park, as of 1994.

Megan's obscenely long science journal find

 Thermus aquaticus is gram-negative

Heres some pretty neat info on thier growth and nutrition needs:

"Nutritional studies on one strain showed

that it did not require vitamins or amino acids, although growth was considerably
faster in enriched than in synthetic medium. Several sugars and organic acids served

as carbon sources, and either NH4+ or glutamate could serve as nitrogen source.

The organism is an obligate aerobe and has a pH optimum of 7.5 to 7.8. The optimum
temperature for growth is 70 C, the maximum 79 C, and the minimum about
40 C. The generation time at the optimum is about 50 min. The possible relationships

of this new genus to the myxobacteria, fiexibacteria, and flavobacteria are

discussed." (a Nonsporulating

Extreme Thermophile 281)

The colonies sre compact, slow spreading, and turn yellow or orange, on certain salts.

Thermus aquaticus has an enzyme that breaks apart the DNA strands of animals, so they they can replicate quicker.  This is used in crime scene investigation problems, when a detectinve needs to identify a body.

Thermus aquaticus is an extremophile, menaing it can survive in extreme environments, obviously.

Thermus aquaticus is used by doctors, investigators, and scientists trying to decode DNA, to replicate many strands of DNA very fast.

    It can also be used for endangered species, trying to track an animals lineage, so that it can be bred with an animal that is not its close relative.

Its a rod shaped, gram negative, and non-motile bacteria.

Thermus aquaticus has an "unusually stable cell membrane." (a Nonsporulating

Extreme Thermophile 294)