Thermococcus paralvinellae sp. nov. and Thermococcus cleftensis sp. nov. of hyperthermophilic heterotrophs from deep-sea hydrothermal vents

Two heterotrophic hyperthermophilic strains, ES1T and CL1T, were isolated from Paralvinella sp. polychaete worms collected from active hydrothermal vent chimneys in the north-eastern Pacific Ocean. Both were obligately anaerobic and produced H2S in the presence of elemental sulfur and H2. Complete genome sequences are available for both strains. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that the strains are more than 97 % similar to most other species of the genus Thermococcus . Therefore, overall genome relatedness index analyses were performed to establish that these strains are novel species. For each analysis, strain ES1T was determined to be most similar to Thermococcus barophilus MPT, while strain CL1T was determined to be most similar to Thermococcus sp. 4557. The average nucleotide identity scores for these strains were 84 % for strain ES1T and 81 % for strain CL1T, genome-to-genome direct comparison scores were 23 % for strain ES1T and 47 % for strain CL1T, and the species identification scores were 89 % for strain ES1T and 88 % for strain CL1T. For each analysis, strains ES1T and CL1T were below the species delineation cut-off. Therefore, based on their whole genome sequences, strains ES1T and CL1T are suggested to represent novel species of the genus Thermococcus for which the names Thermococcus paralvinellae sp. nov. and Thermococcus cleftensis sp. nov. are proposed, respectively. The type strains are ES1T ( = DSM 27261T = KACC 17923T) and CL1T ( = DSM 27260T = KACC 17922T).