WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- A novel cell division mechanism has been discovered in a microorganism that thrives in hot acid, according to a study published Tuesday in the online version of U.S. journal PNAS.

    The finding may also result in insights into key processes in human cells, and in a better understanding of the main evolutionary lineages of life on Earth, said researchers from Uppsala University in Sweden.

    The discovery was made in Sulfolobus acidocaldarius, a microorganism belonging to the third domain of life, the Archaea, which originally was isolated from a hot spring in Yellowstone national park in the United States.

    Because of the extreme conditions, in which the cells grow optimally in acid at 80 Centigrade degrees, the organism is of interest for a wide range of issues, said the article.

    They represent exciting model systems in theories for how life once may have originated in hot environments on early Earth, as well as in the search for life in extreme environments on other planets, lead researcher Rolf Bernander explains.

    The researchers have identified three genes that are activated just prior to cell division. The protein products from these genes form a sharp band in the middle of the cell, between newly segregated chromosomes, and then gradually constrict the cell such that two new daughter cells are formed.

    This is the first time in decades that a novel cell division mechanism has been discovered, and the gene products display no similarity to previously known division proteins, Bernander says.

    Two of the three proteins are instead related to eukaryotic so-called ESCRT-proteins, which play important roles in vesicle formation during intracellular transport processes, and which also have been implicated in virus budding, including HIV, from the cell surface.

    The results are, thus, important not only for an increased understanding of the cell biology of archaea and extremophiles, but also for key cellular processes in human and other higher organisms, and for issues related to the origin and evolutionary history of these processes, said the authors.