It was isolated from a hot spring on the Russian volcanic island of Kunashir by Svetlichny et al. in 1991.[1] Its complete genome was sequenced in 2005 by a team of scientists of the Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) [2]
According to TIGR evolutionary biologistJonathan Eisen, "C. hydrogenoformans is one of the fastest-growing microbes that can convert water and carbon monoxide to hydrogen." The microbe owes this to the fact that it has at least five different forms of carbon monoxide dehydrogenase.
References
^Svetlichny, V.A.; Sokolova, T.G.; Gerhardt, M.; Ringpfeil, M.; Kostrikina, N.A.; Zavarzin, G.A. (1991). "Carboxydothermus hydrogenoformans gen. nov., sp. nov., a CO-utilizing Thermophilic Anaerobic Bacterium from Hydrothermal Environments of Kunashir Island". Systematic and Applied Microbiology. 14 (3): 254–260. doi:10.1016/S0723-2020(11)80377-2.