Botanical atlas

Thermophilic Cyanobacterium

Thermosynechococcus elongatus

Thermosynechococcus elongatus carries no folk tradition the way a garden herb does. It was unknown to healers, cooks, and herbalists alike until the twentieth century, when microbiologists surveying the scalding waters of Japanese hot springs found this hardy, heat-loving cyanobacterium thriving where almost nothing else could live. Its real legacy is a scientific one. Because its proteins hold up unusually well to the heat and handling required in the lab, this organism became one of the most important tools for unlocking the molecular machinery of photosynthesis, and in 2001 researchers used protein isolated from it to solve the first atomic-resolution structure of Photosystem II, the complex that lets plants, algae, and cyanobacteria split water using sunlight.

In tradition.

Thermosynechococcus elongatus carries no folk tradition the way a garden herb does. It was unknown to healers, cooks, and herbalists alike until the twentieth century, when microbiologists surveying the scalding waters of Japanese hot springs found this hardy, heat-loving cyanobacterium thriving where almost nothing else could live. Its real legacy is a scientific one. Because its proteins hold up unusually well to the heat and handling required in the lab, this organism became one of the most important tools for unlocking the molecular machinery of photosynthesis, and in 2001 researchers used protein isolated from it to solve the first atomic-resolution structure of Photosystem II, the complex that lets plants, algae, and cyanobacteria split water using sunlight.

Safety.

This is a laboratory research organism studied for photosynthesis, not a food or supplement, and it has no history of human consumption. It should never be collected from hot springs and eaten or brewed.