The bacteria Thermus thermophilus likes it hot. It was first discovered in the hot springs at Izu in Japan, where it thrives at an optimal temperature of about 65 degrees Celsius.

Thomas Brock in 1992 at a hot spring in Yellowstone National Park. It was there, 26 years earlier, that he found Thermus aquaticus, a species of bacteria that would be used to develop the chemical ...

One of Thermus aquaticus' enzymes is today the key ingredient in the polymerase chain reaction – PCR – which laboratories around the world are using to detect the virus that causes COVID-19.

Bacteria may travel thousands of miles through the air worldwide instead of hitching rides with people and animals, according to scientists. Their 'air bridge' hypothesis could shed light on how ...

A bacterial discovery at Yellowstone 55 years ago has been key to the development of PCR testing, ... The single-celled microbe, now known, fittingly, as Thermus aquaticus, has since become an ...

Understanding of this mechanism opens new ways for further genomic manipulation of both the bacterial host and its virus ... i.e. living at 65C and above, Thermus is a good model organism ...

Bacteria have responded by developing ways to resist the ... -19 pandemic to check for the virus’s presence — requires an enzyme that was first found in a thermophile called Thermus aquaticus.