About: Nautilia profundicola

Nautilia profundicola is a Gram-negative chemolithoautotrophic bacterium found around hydrothermal vents in the deep ocean. It was first discovered in 1999 on the East Pacific Rise at depth of 2,500 metres (8,200 ft), on the surface of the polychaete worm Alvinella pompejana. Nautilia profundicola lives symbiotically on the dorsal hairs of A. pompejana but they may also form biofilms and live independently on the walls of hydrothermal vents. The ability of N. profundicola to survive in an anaerobic environment rich in sulfur, H2 and CO2 of varying temperature makes it a useful organism to study, as these are the conditions that are theorized to have prevailed around the time of the earliest life on earth.