Thermophilic methanogenic archaeon. Methanopyrus kandleri AV19

Methanopyrus kandleri AV19. This organism is an obligately anaerobic hyperthermophilic archeon that was isolated from Guaymas hot vents in anaerobic seawater at a depth of 2000 m. The M. kandleri AV19 genome analysis reveals that this organism is a "minimalist" archaeon, with a small number of genes transferred from bacteria, low diversity of transporters, and particularly, an under representation of predicted regulatory proteins. The presence of such minimal gene set may be a reflection of the M. kandleri's extreme habitat, which could limit its ability to exchange genes with other organisms.