Our research focus is the study of viruses of the extremely thermophilic archaeon (also known as archaebacteria) Sulfolobus. These viruses are completely different, both in their structures and sequences, from any other known viruses. We are interested in how these viruses and their hosts function in geothermally heated hot springs at very high temperatures (80C = 176F) and high acidity (pH below 4). We also use these viruses as tools to develop molecular genetics for extremely thermophilic Archaea. The same viruses can also be used as expression vectors for novel enzymes from extreme thermophiles. We are also very interested in transcriptional regulation in Sulfolobus, since there are some very striking parallels to transcriptional regulation in eukaryotic cells, including humans. Sulfolobus is however a much more tractable system for studying these basal transcriptional mechanisms. MORE (and pictures)