Bacteria of the genus Thermus are common in geothermal habitats worldwide.  Great phylogenetic diversity is observed for Thermus bacteria in Icelandic hot springs, although few phenotypically  distinguishing characters have been observed.  This indicates that adaptive traits are subtle physiological differences in relation to physicochemical conditions.  The aim of the Pan-Thermus project is to resolve ecological adaptations and evolutionary mechanisms contributing to speciation within the genus Thermus.  Our approach involves both the mapping of the distribution of Thermus species in relation to environmental gradients and defining the peripheral genes and the core genome of the genus.  High-resolution data on the distribution of 16S rRNA genes in  water-, sediment- and biomat-samples from 32 diverse hot springs has been acquired using 454 sequencing.  In addition, the genomes of 17 Thermus strains have been sequenced at Matís.  The genomes are being analysed along with 15 published genome sequences.  Software for pangenomic analysis, the SIMSNavigator, has been developed for the project. The SIMSNavigator allows genome comparisons, analysis and visualization of pan- and core genomes, gene order, genetic islands and phylogenetics.  It is linked with the iPath v2 software for construction of metabolic pathways.