Pyrococcus chitonophagus DSM 10152. Pyrococcus chitonophagus DSM 10152

Pyrococcus chitonophagus was previously suggested to belong to the Pyrococcus rather than the Thermococcus genus. Whole genome phylogeny as well as whole proteome comparisons using all available complete genomes in Thermococcales clearly showed that the species belongs to the Pyrococcus genus. P. chitonophagus was originally isolated from a hydrothermal vent site and it has been described to effectively degrade chitin debris and therefore is considered to play a major role in the sea water ecology and metabolic activity of microbial consortia within hot sea water ecosystems. Indeed an obvious feature of the P. chitonophagus genome is that it carries an arsenal of putative chitinase, chitobiase and chitin deacetylase encoding genes. This finding supports the hypothesis that compared to other Thermococalles species P. chitonophagus is adapted to chitin degradation.