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Halobacterium noricense sp. nov., an archaeal isolate from a bore core of an alpine Permian salt deposit, classification of Halobacterium sp. NRC-1 as a strain of H. salinarum and emended description of H. salinarum

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Abstract

Two rod-shaped haloarchaeal strains, A1 and A2, were isolated from a bore core from a salt mine in Austria. The deposition of the salt is thought to have occurred during the Permian period (225–280 million years ago). The 16S rDNA sequences of the strains were 97.1% similar to that of the type species of the genus Halobacterium, which was also determined in this work. Polar lipids consisted of C20–C20 derivatives of phosphatidylglycerol, methylated phosphatidylglycerol phosphate, phosphatidylglycerol sulfate, triglycosyl diether and sulfated tetraglycosyl diether. Optimal salinity for growth was 15–17.5% NaCl; Mg++ was tolerated up to a concentration of 1 M. The DNA–DNA reassociation value of strain A1T was 25% with H. salinarum DSM 3754T and 41% with Halobacterium sp. NRC-1, respectively. Based on these results and other properties, e.g. whole cell protein patterns, menaquinone content and restriction patterns of DNA, strains A1 and A2 are members of a single species, for which we propose the name H. noricense. The type strain is A1 (DSM 15987T, ATCC BAA-852T, NCIMB 13967T). Since we present evidence that Halobacterium sp. NRC-1 is a member of H. salinarum, an emended description of H. salinarum is provided.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge support from the Austrian Science Foundation (FWF), projects P13995-MOB and P16260-B07. We thank Mag. Michael Mayr (Salinen Austria) for help in obtaining the rock salt samples, Dr. Peter Schumann (DSMZ, Braunschweig, Germany) for determination of the G+C content and for DNA–DNA hybridization experiments, Chris Frethem (University of Minnesota) for electron microscopy and Günther Thüry (Lic. Phil., University of Salzburg) for suggesting the species name.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fachbereich für Molekulare Biologie, Abteilung Mikrobiologie, Hellbrunnerstrasse 34, 5020, Salzburg, Austria

    Claudia Gruber, Andrea Legat, Marion Pfaffenhuemer, Christian Radax, Gerhard Weidler & Helga Stan-Lotter

  2. Institut für Bakteriologie, Mykologie und Hygiene, Veterinärplatz 1, 1210, Vienna, Austria

    Hans-Jürgen Busse

  3. Institut für Mikrobiologie und Genetik, Dr. Bohrgasse 9, 1030, Vienna, Austria

    Hans-Jürgen Busse

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  1. Claudia Gruber
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  2. Andrea Legat
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Correspondence to Helga Stan-Lotter.

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Communicated by W. D. Grant

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Gruber, C., Legat, A., Pfaffenhuemer, M. et al. Halobacterium noricense sp. nov., an archaeal isolate from a bore core of an alpine Permian salt deposit, classification of Halobacterium sp. NRC-1 as a strain of H. salinarum and emended description of H. salinarum . Extremophiles 8, 431–439 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-004-0403-6

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