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Hot springs microbe yields record-breaking, heat-tolerant enzyme Bioprospectors from the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Maryland School of Medicine have found a microbe in a Nevada hot spring that happily eats plant material – cellulose – at temperatures near the boiling point of water. In fact, the microbe’s cellulose-digesting enzyme, called a cellulase, is most active at a record 109 degrees Celsius (228 degrees Fahrenheit), significantly above the 100℃ (212℉) boiling point of water. A 94°C geothermal pool, with a level-maintaining siphon, near Gerlach, Nevada. This so-called hyperthermophilic microbe, discovered in a 95℃ (203℉) geothermal pool, is only the second member of the ancient group Archaea known to grow by digesting cellulose above 80℃. “These are the most thermophilic Archaea discovered that will grow on cellulose and the most thermophilic cellulase in any organism,” said coauthor Douglas S. Clark and coworkers at UC Berkeley are teaming with colleagues, led by Frank T. For more information: