Panguiarchaeum symbiosum, a potential hyperthermophilic symbiont in the TACK superphylum
Yan-Ni Qu,
Yang-Zhi Rao,
Yan-Ling Qi,
Yu-Xian Li,
Andrew Li,
Marike Palmer,
Brian P. Hedlund,
Wen-Sheng Shu,
Paul N. Evans,
Guo-Xing Nie,
Zheng-Shuang Hua,
Wen-Jun Li
Affiliations
Yan-Ni Qu
State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Resources and Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510275, PR China
Yang-Zhi Rao
State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Resources and Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510275, PR China
Yan-Ling Qi
Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory of Urban Pollutant Conversion, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
Yu-Xian Li
Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory of Urban Pollutant Conversion, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
Andrew Li
Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory of Urban Pollutant Conversion, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
Marike Palmer
School of Life Sciences, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV 89154, USA
Brian P. Hedlund
School of Life Sciences, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV 89154, USA; Nevada Institute of Personalized Medicine, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV 89154, USA
Wen-Sheng Shu
School of Life Sciences, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, PR China
Paul N. Evans
The Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia
Guo-Xing Nie
College of Fisheries, Henan Normal University, Xinxiang, China
Zheng-Shuang Hua
Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory of Urban Pollutant Conversion, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China; Corresponding author
Wen-Jun Li
State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Resources and Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510275, PR China; State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, PR China; Corresponding author
Summary: The biology of Korarchaeia remains elusive due to the lack of genome representatives. Here, we reconstruct 10 closely related metagenome-assembled genomes from hot spring habitats and place them into a single species, proposed herein as Panguiarchaeum symbiosum. Functional investigation suggests that Panguiarchaeum symbiosum is strictly anaerobic and grows exclusively in thermal habitats by fermenting peptides coupled with sulfide and hydrogen production to dispose of electrons. Due to its inability to biosynthesize archaeal membranes, amino acids, and purines, this species likely exists in a symbiotic lifestyle similar to DPANN archaea. Population metagenomics and metatranscriptomic analyses demonstrated that genes associated with amino acid/peptide uptake and cell attachment exhibited positive selection and were highly expressed, supporting the proposed proteolytic catabolism and symbiotic lifestyle. Our study sheds light on the metabolism, evolution, and potential symbiotic lifestyle of Panguiarchaeum symbiosum, which may be a unique host-dependent archaeon within the TACK superphylum.
