BIOTECHNOLOGY POTENTIAL AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THERMOPHILIC BACTERIA ISOLATED FROM THE KHOJA-OBI-GARM GEOTHERMAL SPRING (TAJIKISTAN)

To date, many strains of Thermus have been isolated from various geothermal environments such as hot springs and deep-sea hydrothermal vents. In an effort to recover thermophilic microorganisms and enzymes for industrial applications, a new thermophilic bacterium belonging to the Deinococcota phylum was isolated from hot soil (93 oC; pH 8,5) in the Khodja-Obi-Garm field located on the Bank of the Varzob river, (Tajikistan). Draft genome sequencing yielded 2,169,573 bp of unique sequence data distributed into 124 contigs with an average GC content of 67.76% and a genome completeness of 100%. Average nucleotide identity (ANI) and digital DNA - DNA hybridization (dDDH) values were 97.71 % and 68.6%, respectively, demonstrating that strain Thermus KhOG constitutes a separate and distinct genome species, and the first reported thermophile from Tajikistan.