| Extremophiles are organisms that live in environments which are not suitable for most other life. They expand our definition of life-supporting environments by exceeding expectations of adaptability. Studying these organisms has important implications in the advancement of many fields including astrobiology, biotechnology, and environmental preservation. Acidophiles are extremophilic organisms with optimal living conditions in very acidic environments generally below pH 3. Through genome sequencing, we identified an acidophilic fungus from the Richmond Mine as Acidomyces richmondensis. We used a combination of Illumina and PacBio sequencing to produce a near-complete genome assembly composed of 34 scaffolds totaling 29.3 Mbp genome. We computationally predicted 8,336 protein coding genes and used several of them to construct phylogenies, which both confirmed the species' identity and revealed Hortaea werneckii to be a close relative. A comparative genomic analysis showed 703 genes that differentiate A. richmondensis from other fungal species, some of which may be directly related to its ability to survive such an extreme environment. Further experimentation will be required to understand the mechanisms behind its survival in extremely low pH, and our genome assembly of this species can be utilized for this purpose. |
