Novel Intact Polar and Core Lipid Compositions in the Model Species, and , Reveal the Largest Lipid Diversity Amongst Thermococcales.

Elucidating the lipidome of Archaea is essential to understand their tolerance to extreme environmental conditions. Previous characterizations of the lipid composition of species, a model genus of hyperthermophilic archaea belonging to the Thermococcales order, led to conflicting results, which hindered the comprehension of their membrane structure and the putative adaptive role of their lipids. In an effort to clarify the lipid composition data of the genus, we thoroughly investigated the distribution of both the core lipids (CL) and intact polar lipids (IPL) of the model and, for the first time, of , the sole obligate piezophilic hyperthermophilic archaeon known to date.