The sequence of the single 16S rRNA gene of the thermophilic eubacterium Rhodothermus marinus reveals a distant relationship to the group containing Flexibacter, Bacteroides, and Cytophaga species.

Rhodothermus marinus, a gram-negative heterotrophic marine thermophile, has been the subject of several recent studies. Isolation, sequencing, and analyses of a 16S rRNA gene have shown that R. marinus diverges sharply from major bacterial phyla and is most closely allied to the Flexibacter-Cytophaga-Bacteroides group. Further analyses revealed that the R. marinus chromosome contains a single rRNA operon with a 16S-23S intergenic region coding for tRNA(Ile) and tRNA(Ala).