General Information: This organism is a thermoacidophile, and can grow at temperatures around 60C and in environments where the pH drops to 0. The name reflects the area where the organism was isolated, which was a hot dry soil in Kawayu, in northern Japan, that was solfataric (volcanic area that gives off sulfur). The genome also encodes a large number of proton-driven secondary transporters which represents another adaptation to the acid environment. This organism expresses a surface layer (S-layer) that consists of a semicrystalline array of proteins outside the cell membrane.