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Selective enrichment, isolation and molecular detection of Salinibacter and related extremely halophilic Bacteria from hypersaline environments

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Abstract

Salinibacter is a genus of red, extremely halophilic Bacteria. Thus far the genus is represented by a single species, Salinibacter ruber, strains of which have been isolated from saltern crystallizer ponds in Spain and on the Balearic Islands. Both with respect to its growth conditions and its physiology, Salinibacter resembles the halophilic Archaea of the order Halobacteriales. We have designed selective enrichment and isolation techniques to obtain Salinibacter and related red extremely halophilic Bacteria from different hypersaline environments, based on their resistance to anisomycin and bacitracin, two antibiotics that are potent inhibitors of the halophilic Archaea. Using direct plating on media containing bacitracin, we found Salinibacter-like organisms in numbers between 1.4×103 and 1.4×106ml−1 in brines collected from the crystallizer ponds of the salterns in Eilat, Israel, being equivalent to 1.8–18% of the total colony counts obtained on identical media without bacitracin. A number of strains from Eilat were subjected to a preliminary characterization, and they proved similar to the type strain of S. ruber. We also report here the isolation and molecular detection of Salinibacter-like organisms from an evaporite crust on the bottom of salt pools at the Badwater site in Death Valley, CA. These isolates and environmental 16S rRNA gene sequences differ in a number of properties from S. ruber, and they may represent a new species of Salinibacter or a new related genus.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Institute of Life Sciences, and The Moshe Shilo Minerva Center for Marine Biogeochemistry, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 91904, Israel

    Rahel Elevi Bardavid, Danny Ionescu & Aharon Oren

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, 70803, USA

    Fred A. Rainey, Becky J. Hollen, Danielle R. Bagaley & Alanna M. Small

  3. Space Science Division, NASA-Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, 94035, USA

    Christopher McKay

Authors
  1. Rahel Elevi Bardavid
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  2. Danny Ionescu
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  3. Aharon Oren
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  4. Fred A. Rainey
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  5. Becky J. Hollen
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  6. Danielle R. Bagaley
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  7. Alanna M. Small
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  8. Christopher McKay
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Correspondence to Aharon Oren.

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Guest Editor: John M. Melack

Saline Waters and their Biota

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Bardavid, R.E., Ionescu, D., Oren, A. et al. Selective enrichment, isolation and molecular detection of Salinibacter and related extremely halophilic Bacteria from hypersaline environments. Hydrobiologia 576, 3–13 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-006-0288-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-006-0288-8

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