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Ignicoccus is a genus of hyperthermophile Archaea living in marine hydrothermal vents. They were discovered in samples taken at the Kolbeinsey Ridge north of Iceland, as well as at the East Pacific Rise (at 9 degrees N, 104 degrees W) in 2000.
They have a previously unknown cell envelope structure—a cytoplasmic membrane, a periplasmic space (with a variable width of 20 to 400 nm, containing membrane-bound vesicles), and an outer membrane (approximately 10 nm wide, resembling the outer membrane of gram-negative bacteria). The latter contains numerous tightly, irregularly packed single particles (about 8 nm in diameter) and pores with a diameter of 24 nm, surrounded by tiny particles, arranged in a ring (with a diameter of 130 nm) and clusters of up to eight particles 12 nm in diameter each.
The two layers of membrane previously reported are actually a type of endomembrane system consisting of cytoplasmic protrusions. In I. hospitalis, these structures harbor the endosymbiotic archaeon Nanoarchaeum equitans.
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