Characterisation and biotechnological uses of archaeal viral DNA polymerases

In addition to the bacteria and eukarya, archaea were suggested as the third domain of life by Woese & Fox, 1977. As with viruses infecting eukaryotes and bacteria, archaeal viruses are seen across the archaeal spectrum infecting halophiles, thermophiles and methanogens. Viruses infecting extremophilic archaea have evolved machineries that enable them function at extreme temperature, salinity, and pH that can make them biotechnologically useful. Genomic sequencing had revealed that some archaeal viruses encode putative family B DNA polymerase. In this study, type B DNA polymerase genes encoded by Methanosarcina Spherical Virus 1 (MetSV) and Sulfolobus ellipsoid virus 1 (SEV1) were cloned into various N-terminal 6xHis-tag and C-terminal 6xHis/FLAG-tag pET expression vectors using ligase independent cloning.