Title: Archaea and Their Potential Role in Human Disease | Infection and Immunity
Headings: Archaea and Their Potential Role in Human Disease
Archaea and Their Potential Role in Human Disease
POTENTIAL PATHOGENICITY OF ARCHAEA
POTENTIAL ASSOCIATIONS OF ARCHAEA WITH HUMAN DISEASE
CONCLUSION AND FUTURE STUDIES
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
REFERENCES
KEYWORDS

Content: Archaea and Their Potential Role in Human Disease | Infection and Immunity
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Archaea and Their Potential Role in Human Disease
Paul B. Eckburg, Paul W. Lepp, David A. Relman
Paul B. Eckburg
Department of Microbiology & Immunology and Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305, and Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, California 94304
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Paul W. Lepp
Department of Microbiology & Immunology and Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305, and Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, California 94304
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David A. Relman
Department of Microbiology & Immunology and Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305, and Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, California 94304
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For correspondence: relman@stanford.edu
DOI: 10.1128/IAI.71.2.591-596.2003
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Over the past 50 years, the search for microorganisms in seemingly uninhabitable environments, such as at the extremes of pH, temperature, nutrient concentration, and pressure, has yielded a great deal of information about the diversity and origins of microbial life. Archaea, one of the three domains of life, is a highly diverse and abundant group of prokaryotes, and includes a number of “extremophiles” that thrive in such environments as hot springs, salt lakes, and submarine volcanic habitats ( 33 ). Recent molecular studies have also revealed that archaea, like bacteria, are commonly mesophilic ( 10 ). It is puzzling that despite being one of the most numerous and ubiquitous life forms on earth, no member of the domain Archaea has been described as a human pathogen ( 47) (Fig. 1 ). Open in new tab
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FIG. 1. Universal phylogenetic tree based on comparison of small subunit rRNA sequences.