Disease relevance of Hot Springs

• Thermus aquaticus and Thermus thermophilus, common inhabitants of terrestrial hot springs and thermally polluted domestic and industrial waters, have been found to rapidly oxidize arsenite to arsenate [1].
• Thermoanaerobacter mathranii sp. nov., an ethanol-producing, extremely thermophilic anaerobic bacterium from a hot spring in Iceland [2].
• Evidence for the adaptive evolution of the carbon fixation gene rbcL during diversification in temperature tolerance of a clade of hot spring cyanobacteria [3].
• Photosynthesis was measured by the 14C method on natural as well as low light adapted populations of Chloroflexus (a photosynthetic bacterium) and Synechococcus (a blue-green alga) from hot springs in Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming U.S.A.), to test the ability of these phototrophs to photosynthesize at a variety of light intensities [4].
• METHODS AND RESULTS: In this research a new carbazole-degrading strain was isolated from hot springs in Mexico. This bacterium was preliminary identified as Burkholderia sp. IMP5GC and was able to grow using carbazole as sole carbon and nitrogen source [5].

High impact information on Hot Springs

• The MCP structure also provides insights into the stabilizing forces required for extracellular hyperthermophilic proteins to tolerate high-temperature hot springs [6].
• We report here phylogenetic characterization of many archaeal small subunit rRNA gene sequences obtained by polymerase chain reaction amplification of mixed population DNA extracted directly from sediment of a hot spring in Yellowstone National Park. This approach obviates the need for cultivation to identify organisms [7].
• In the marine environment, archaeal habitats are generally limited to shallow or deep-sea anaerobic sediments (free-living and endosymbiotic methanogens), hot springs or deep-sea hydrothermal vents (methanogens, sulfate reducers, and extreme thermophiles), and highly saline land-locked seas (halophiles) [8].
• Omega-Cyclohexyl undecanoic acid and omega-cyclohexyl tridecanoic acid were found in 10 strains of acido-thermophilic bacteria isolated from different Japanese hot springs [9].
• Geochemical analyses of Coso Hot Springs indicated that mercury ore (cinnabar) was present at concentrations of parts per thousand [10].

Chemical compound and disease context of Hot Springs

• These results have implications for our understanding of the breakdown of carbohydrates present in organic matter found in the natural ecological niches of Thermoanaerobacter species (sulphide-, elemental sulphur- or sulphate-rich thermal hot springs and oil fields) [11].
• A thermophilic bacterium, Streptomyces sp. IKD472, that can oxidize xylitol was isolated from a hot spring and was found to produce xylitol oxidase [12].

Biological context of Hot Springs

• We investigated the diversity, distribution, and phenotypes of uncultivated Chloroflexaceae-related bacteria in photosynthetic microbial mats of an alkaline hot spring (Mushroom Spring, Yellowstone National Park) [13].
• Decrease in heart rates by artificial CO2 hot spring bathing is inhibited by beta1-adrenoceptor blockade in anesthetized rats [14].
• In these areas, mineral deposits such as apatite and serpentine and also hot spring regions with exhalations of fluorine are found [15].
• As the p53 protein level was high in the residents in the Misasa hot spring district, apoptosis of cancer cells may readily occur [16].

Anatomical context of Hot Springs

• Novel red, filamentous, gliding bacteria formed deep red layers in several alkaline hot springs in Yellowstone National Park. Filaments contained densely layered intracellular membranes and bacteriochlorophyll a [17].
• These findings suggest that the increase in plasma PAI-1 level may be due to the direct hyperthermal action of the very hot hot-spring bath on the endothelial cells and that acute hyperthermal stress may decrease the fibrinolytic capacity, leading to the occurrence of thrombotic events [18].

Associations of Hot Springs with chemical compounds

• In solfataric fields in southwestern Iceland, neutral and sulfide-rich hot springs are characterized by thick bacterial mats at 60 to 80 degrees C that are white or yellow from precipitated sulfur (sulfur mats) [19].
• Arsenite-oxidizing Hydrogenobaculum strain isolated from an acid-sulfate-chloride geothermal spring in Yellowstone National Park [20].
• A thermophilic, anaerobic, spore-forming bacterium (strain JW/AS-Y6T) was isolated from a mixed sediment-water sample from a hot spring (Calcite Spring area) at Yellowstone National Park. The vegetative cells of this organism were straight rods, 0.4 to 0.6 by 3.0 to 6.5 microns [21].
• Thirty-four thermophilic Bacillus sp. strains were isolated from decayed wood bark and a hot spring water sample based on their ability to degrade vanillic acid under thermophilic conditions [22].
• Highly stable L-lysine 6-dehydrogenase from the thermophile Geobacillus stearothermophilus isolated from a Japanese hot spring: characterization, gene cloning and sequencing, and expression [23].

Gene context of Hot Springs

• Remarkable archaeal diversity detected in a Yellowstone National Park hot spring environment [7].
• The complex polar lipids of the hot spring cyanobacterial mat in the 50 to 55 degrees C region of Octopus Spring, Yellowstone National Park, and of thermophilic bacteria cultivated from this or similar habitats, were compared in an attempt to understand the microbial sources of the major lipid biomarkers in this community [24].
• Investigation of the microbial ecology of intertidal hot springs by using diversity analysis of 16S rRNA and chitinase genes [25].
• Thermotolerant strain LK6 was isolated from agricultural soil, and the moderately thermophilic strain OR2 was isolated from the effluent of an underground hot spring [26].
• A thermostable fumarase was purified from a strain of Thermus thermophilus isolated from a Japanese hot spring [27].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of Hot Springs

• We ourselves applied in our patients subcutaneous injections of hot-spring gas, per os prazosin (postsynaptic blocker of alpha-sympathetic receptors) which except for its vasodilatory effect improves the rheologic qualities of blood) [28].
• When the extracted DNA of these two strains showed identical restriction fragments by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, we had direct evidence that hot spring spas can be a source of Legionella pneumonia [29].

References