1 Insight into the evolution of microbial metabolism from the deep- 2 branching bacterium, Thermovibrio ammonificans 3 4 5 Donato Giovannelli1,2,3,4*, Stefan M. Sievert5, Michael Hügler6, Stephanie Markert7, Dörte Becher8, 6 Thomas Schweder 8, and Costantino Vetriani1,9* 7 8 9 1Institute of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, 10 USA 11 2Institute of Marine Science, National Research Council of Italy, ISMAR-CNR, 60100, Ancona, Italy 12 3Program in Interdisciplinary Studies, Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA 13 4Earth-Life Science Institute, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo 152-8551, Japan 14 5Biology Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA 15 6DVGW-Technologiezentrum Wasser (TZW), Karlsruhe, Germany 16 7Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Institute of Pharmacy, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University Greifswald, 17 17487 Greifswald, Germany 18 8Institute for Microbiology, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University Greifswald, 17487 Greifswald, Germany 19 9Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA 20 21 *Correspondence to: 22 Costantino Vetriani 23 Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology 24 and Institute of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences 25 Rutgers University 26 71 Dudley Rd 27 New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA 28 +1 (848) 932-3379 29
[email protected] 30 31 Donato Giovannelli 32 Institute of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences 33 Rutgers University 34 71 Dudley Rd 35 New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA 36 +1 (848) 932-3378 37
[email protected] 38 39 40 Abstract 41 Anaerobic thermophiles inhabit relic environments that resemble the early Earth. However, the 42 lineage of these modern organisms co-evolved with our planet.