fervidobacterium islandicum fervidobacterium islandicum fervidobacterium islandicum is a species of extremely thermophilic anaerobic bacteria, first isolated from an icelandic hot spring. fervidobacterium islandicum scientific classification domain: bacteria phylum: thermotogota class: thermotogae order: thermotogales family: thermotogaceae genus: fervidobacterium species: f. islandicum binomial name fervidobacterium islandicumhuber et al. 1991 biology and biochemistry morphology f. islandicum cells are gram-negative motile rods, about 1.8 μm in length, and 0.6 μm in width occurring singly or in pairs. about 50% of cells form large spheroids at one end known as a 'toga' commonly found in members of the phylum thermotogota (formerly thermotogae) physiology f. islandicum isolate h21 grows in a ph range from 6.0 to 8.0 with an optimum at around 7.2. growth is observed at a temperature range between 40 °c and 80 °c, with an optimum of 70 °c. at a temperature of 65 °c, strain h21 has a doubling time of 150 minutes. culture growth growth of isolate h21 requires low amounts (0.3%) of yeast extract. when this is used as a single carbon and energy source, the final cell concentration is 1x107 cells/ml. growth is strongly enhanced by the addition of 0.2% pyruvate, ribose, glucose, maltose, raffinose, starch and, less efficiently, cellulose. final cell concentrations with these additions can range from 2 to 5x108. in the presence of glucose, f. islandicum produces the following end products: l(+) lactate, acetate, ethanol, h2 and co2. isolate h21 shows a sensitivity to common antibiotics, its growth is inhibited by addition of vancomycin, streptomycin, ampicillin, chloramphenicol and rifampicin at 10 μ g/ml. genomics f. islandicum strain aw-1 has a total genome size of 2.4 million base pairs, which is slightly larger than the genomes of other fervidobacterium strains. it has a g + c content of 40.7%. it contains 2,184 protein coding genes in a total of 2,248 genes. environment f. islandicum was originally isolated from an icelandic hot spring on the banks of the river varma close to hverager ð i, iceland. the anaerobic samples were taken from hot waters and muds. here, the temperatures were between 70 °c and 102 °c, and the ph was between 1.5 and 9. biotechnological applications f. islandicum aw-1 is capable of complete feather degradation at 70 °c and a ph of 7. feather keratin has a very high cysteine content, which makes it very rigid and hard to digest. 5 million tons of chicken feathers are generated by the poultry industry every year, making chicken feathers a serious solid waste problem. therefore, f. islandicum's ability to degrade native chicken feathers is very appealing.