How is it beneficial?

The bacteria Thermus Aquaticus is a medical marvel. Some people even compare it to the discovery of Penicillin. The reason why is that in order to live at such high temperatures it needs to utilize enzymes that do not denature at high temperatures. Normal enzyme (below left). But if it becomes denatured then the enzyme becomes unusable and the organism will die. Thermus Aquaticus is the first living organism that creates enzymes that can survive at such a high level. Why is this useful? Because without this many common products would be impossible to make. 

One of the biggest competitions surrounding patents revolved around this process. With these enzymes the soda pop industry (seemingly unrelated) would be revolutionized. This is because one of the steps involves heating the pop, the factory has to wait for it to cool before the enzymes (normal ones) can be put in, otherwise the heat would denature them. This cooling could take more than an hour to take place. With this enzyme (from Thermus Aquaticus) the heating can go on and the factory can put in the enzyme. This cut down on the necessary time to make soda pop. This process resulted in a multi billion dollar industry, and it was because of this bacteria. 

DNA sequencing

We have all heard DNA sequencing in forensic sciences but how are they related? To analyze DNA you need several copies of it. To create DNA outside of the body would take hours. One way to speed it up is to use processes of boiling and cooling the water which the DNA is in. The problem? The enzymes which are used to copy DNA would be slowed down and even denature. This is where this enzyme from Thermus Aquaticus comes into play. This enzyme is used in this process because it takes the place of normal enzymes that cannot survive these warming and cooling processes. In the end it takes a much shorter time to make all the DNA one would possibly need. 

Other enzymes that Thermus Aquaticus produces include Aldolase and RNA Polymerase.