The Ecology of the Crenarchaeota

A bit more ecological data has been uncovered regarding Crenarchaeota, a phylum of archaea known for their mostly acido/thermophilic nature and hallowed place in as the probable forerunners of all life.

A new study led by University of Georgia researchers and announced on Wednesday at the American Society for Microbiology meeting in Toronto finds that crenarchaeota, one of the most common groups of archaea and a group that includes members that live in hot springs, use ammonia as their energy source...

"The oxidation of ammonia was not thought to be a dominant process for crenarchaeota, but now we realize how important it is," said Zhang, who is also associate professor of marine sciences...

Zhang and his colleagues... found the widespread distribution of the presumed amoA genes, which microorganisms use to combine ammonia with oxygen, releasing useable energy...

Because ammonia-oxidizing archaea are associated with a group of microorganisms that thrive in hot spring environments that are thought to resemble early conditions on Earth, Zhang said they may help scientists better understand the earliest stages of evolution on the planet.

"If we want to know how organisms evolved and how their metabolism evolved, we need to understand both the hot springs environment and the low-temperature environment," said Zhang. "Crenarchaeota are special because they thrive in both environments."