Many thermophiles that are abundant in geothermal systems have never been cultivated and are poorly understood. Here, Lai et al. describe the cultivation of one such organism, a deeply branching member of the archaeal phylum Thermoproteota, and provide evidence that it has evolved to specialize in branched-chain amino acid metabolism.
- Dengxun Lai
- Damon Mosier
- Brian P. Hedlund
