Abstract
The archaebacteria comprise several distinct phenotypes including extreme halophiles, certain thermophiles and the methanogens. Despite the phenotypic diversity of the group as a whole, partial sequence analyses of 16S rRNA by Woese and colleagues (1,2) have indicated that these prokaryotes represent a well-defined third line of evolutionary descent different from all other prokaryotes (the eubacteria) and the eukaryotic line. There is now a wealth of additional biochemical detail supporting the separate evolutionary lineage of the group including the nature of archaebacterial cell walls (which lack peptidoglycan) and major differences in transcriptional and translation equipment (3,4). In particular, unlike eubacteria and eukaryotes, archaebacteria have membranes based on ether-linked isopranyl core lipids (5). In the majority of cases these lipids are C20C20 glycerol biphytanyl diethers or C40C40 dibiphytanyl diglycerol tetraethers, although certain halophiles are unusual in possessing sesterterpanyl (C25) chains as well as C20 chains in ether linkage to glycerol (6).
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References
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© 1987 Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht
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Grant, W.D. (1987). Anaerobic Archaebacteria. In: Borriello, S.P., Hardie, J.M., Drasar, B.S., Duerden, B.I., Hudson, M.J., Lysons, R.J. (eds) Recent Advances in Anaerobic Bacteriology. New Perspectives in Clinical Microbiology, vol 12. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3293-7_21
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3293-7_21
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