In taxonomy

Alpha taxonomy

Alpha taxonomy is the discipline concerned with finding, describing and naming species of living or fossil organisms. This field is supported by institutions holding collections of these organisms, with relevant data, carefully curated: such institutes include natural history museums, herbaria and...

, the Korarchaeota are a phylum of the Archaea

Archaea

The Archaea are a group of single-celled microorganisms. A single individual or species from this domain is called an archaeon...

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Analysis of their 16S rRNA gene sequences suggests that they are a deeply-branching lineage that does not belong to the main archaeal groups, Crenarchaeota

Crenarchaeota

In taxonomy, the Crenarchaeota has been classified as either a phylum of the Archaea kingdom or a kingdom of its own...

 and Euryarchaeota

Euryarchaeota

In the taxonomy of microorganisms, the Euryarchaeota are a phylum of the Archaea.The Euryarchaeota include the methanogens, which produce methane and are often found in intestines, the halobacteria, which survive extreme concentrations of salt, and some extremely thermophilic aerobes and anaerobes...

. Analysis of the genome of one korarchaeote that was enriched from a mixed culture revealed a number of both Crenarchaeota- and Euryarchaeota-like features and supports the hypothesis of a deep-branching ancestry.

Ecology

The Korarchaeota have only been found in high temperature hydrothermal environments. They appear to have diversified at different phylogenetic levels according to temperature, salinity (freshwater or seawater), and/or geography. Korarchaeota have been found in nature in only low abundance.

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