It was isolated from a hot spring on the Russian volcanic island of Kunashir by Svetlichny et al. in 1991.[1] Its complete genome was sequenced in 2005 by a team of scientists of the Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) [2]
According to TIGR evolutionary biologistJonathan Eisen, "C. hydrogenoformans is one of the fastest-growing microbes that can convert water and carbon monoxide to hydrogen." The microbe owes this to the fact that it has at least five different forms of carbon monoxide dehydrogenase.
^Svetlichny, V.A.; Sokolova, T.G.; Gerhardt, M.; Ringpfeil, M.; Kostrikina, N.A.; Zavarzin, G.A. (1991). "Carboxydothermus hydrogenoformans gen. nov., sp. nov., a CO-utilizing Thermophilic Anaerobic Bacterium from Hydrothermal Environments of Kunashir Island". Systematic and Applied Microbiology. 14 (3): 254–260. doi:10.1016/S0723-2020(11)80377-2.