Importance and Diversity of the Halophilic Archaea Mălin Enache

43 Pages·2006·1.85 MB·English

08/10/2005
Importance and Diversity of the Halophilic Archaea
Mădălin Enache
RIKEN, Bioresource Center, Japan Collection of
Microorganisms
Introduction in Microbiology
Hypersaline environments & halophilic microorganisms
Physiological & biochemical properties
How they obtaining energy for growth?
Particularity of Halophilic Microorganisms
- lipids
- bacteriorhodopsine
How survive microorganisms to high salt concentration?
- salt-in strategy
-compatible solute strategy
Research activity in Japan
Living organisms are composed of cells.
Plants and animals are called
multicellular; they are composed of
many cells and each cell depend on the
other, cannot have an independent
existence
Microorganisms are free-living cells.
They are unicellular and able to carry out
its life processes of growth, energy
generation, and reproduction
independently of other cells.
Microorganisms
– a microscopic organism consisting of a single cell.
Individually they can be see only by microscope
Microbiology
– is the study of microorganisms
Microbiology study is important as:
- basic biological science – understanding life process
- applied biological science – industrial process of biotechnology
Wide spread of biotechnology
is based on diversity of
microorganism which can be
find in all three domain of life :
Hypersaline environments & halophilic
microorganisms
Categories of halophilic microorganisms
Category Growth salt range (M) Example
Halotolerant 0.0 - 5.2 Staphylococcus aureus
Slight halophile 0.2 - 0.5 Marine bacteria
Moderate halophile 0.5 - 2.5 Vibrio costicola
Borderline extreme halophile 1.5 - 4.0 Actinopolyspora halophila
Extreme halophile >2.5 Halobacterium, Halococcus
(After Ventosa A., 1989)
Habitat of the halophilic archaea
Type of habitat Examples
Salterns Alicante, Spain
Solar salt Puerto Rico, Bonaire
High salt foods Salt fish
Salt mines Cheshire, UK
Salt lakes, neutral pH Great Salt Lake, Utah
Dead Sea, Israel
Salt lakes, alkaline pH Lake Magadi, Kenya
Owens Lake, California
Salt lakes, cold Vestfold Hills, Antarctica
Salt ponds Widely distributed
(after Norton, C.F., 1992)
Aerial view of a modern solar saltern facility in Grantsville, Utah (DasSarma 1995)
The Salt Mountain in Slanic Prahova – Romania; The mountain cover partially the Lake
Bride Cave, a habitat of new extremely halophilic archaea pertaining to Haloferax and
Haloarcula genera
Physiological & biochemical properties
How they obtaining energy for growth?