Abstract:[Objective]We explored the composition and diversity of archaea in a cold sulfur spring water in Xinjiang earthquake fault zone.[Methods]Environmental total DNA was extracted directly with enzymatic lysis method from a cold sulfur spring water. We constructed clone library of 16S rRNA gene amplified with archaeal-specific primers. A total of 115 positive clones were selected randomly from the library and identified by restriction length polymorphism(RFLP) with enzyme Alu I and Afa I.The unique RFLP patterns corresponded clones were selected for sequencing,BLAS alignment and constructing 16S rRNA gene phylogenetic tree.[Results] In total,44 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were determined from the library. BLAST and phylogenetic analysis indicated that these OTUs were affiliated with Euryarchaeota (94.78%) and Thaumarchaeota (4.35%).Only one Thaumarchaeotal clone was detected and most related to the genus Nitrosopumilus with 93% similarity. Euryarchaeotal clones were abundant and diverse.Of them,42.61% of clones belonged to RC-V cluster; 13.91% of clones,20.87% of clones were classified into LDS cluster and Methanomicrobiales respectively; 4.35% of clones had high similarity with ANME-1a-FW,which were involved in Anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM).In addition,we also detected some (13.05%) unknown Euryarchaeotal clones.Conclusion] Euryarchaeota in the environment were diverse,and possibly with a large fraction of potential novel species.