Novel group within the kingdom Crenarchaeota from boreal forest soil. Appl Environ Microbiol 63: 803–805

We report here the results of phylogenetic analysis of archaeal 16S rRNA gene sequences amplified by PCR with Archaea-specific primers with mixed-population DNA extracted directly from forest soil used as a tem-plate. Nucleotide signature and phylogenetic analyses show that the sequences obtained belong to the domain Archaea and form a new cluster. Its phylogenetic position suggests that sequences are from a previously undescribed terrestrial group within the kingdom Crenarchaeota. Microbial diversity in soil has been studied by analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences (15) and in many cases new groups within the Bacteria and Eucarya have been found (5, 12). How-ever, there have been only a few reports about the diversity of Archaea in nonextreme environments such as soil. Three stud-ies that relied on PCR analysis have shown Archaea to be present in soil from a soybean field, blanket bog peat, and pasture soil (4, 11, 18). In this paper, we report the presence of a previously unde-scribed terrestrial group of low-temperature Archaea organ