Diversity of culturable halophilic archaea isolated from Rambla Salada, Murcia (Spain)

• Published in: Extremophiles : life under extreme conditions Vol. 16; no. 2; pp. 205 - 213
• Main Authors: Luque, R., González-Domenech, C. M., Llamas, I., Quesada, E., Béjar, V.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Japan Springer Japan 01.03.2012; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Archaea; Archaea - genetics; Biochemistry; Biodiversity; Biological and medical sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biotechnology; Colonies; Data processing; Diversity indices; DNA, Archaeal - genetics; Fermentation; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gene Expression Regulation, Archaeal; Genetic distance; Genetic Variation; Habitat; Habitats; Halobacteriaceae; Halobacteriaceae - genetics; Halobacteriales - genetics; Haloferax; Halophilic archaea; Life Sciences; Magnesium; Metabolism; Microbial Ecology; Microbiology; Microorganisms; New taxa; Original Paper; Oxygen Consumption; Phenotype; Phylogeny; Polymerase Chain Reaction - methods; Population genetics; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S - genetics; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S - metabolism; rRNA 16S; Salts; Sampling; Sodium chloride; Sodium Chloride - chemistry; Space life sciences; Spain; Water Microbiology; Southern Europe; Europe; Spain; Culturable archaea; Hypersaline habitat; Biodiversity; Taxonomy; Rambla Salada; Halophiles; Archaeobacteria; Environmental factor; Salinity; Hypersaline environment; Halophily; Bacteria; Habitat; Extreme environment; Culturable archaeal
• ISSN: 1431-0651; 1433-4909
• DOI: 10.1007/s00792-011-0420-1

We have studied the diversity of culturable halophilic Archaea at Rambla Salada, Murcia (south-eastern Spain). We made 8 samplings at different places in this habitat during the years 2006 and 2007 and isolated a total of 49 strains, which were identified by means of phenotypic tests and the hypervariable V1–V3 region of the 16S rRNA gene sequences (around 500 bp). The ribosomal data showed that the isolates belonged to 12 genera within the Halobacteriaceae family, with Haloferax and Natrinema being the most abundant. Five strains showed less than 97% sequence identity with validly described species and may well represent new taxa. All the strains grew best with around 25% w/v salts, required high concentrations of NaCl and magnesium and produced red to pink colonies. They were facultative anaerobes with both respiratory and fermentative metabolisms. The diversity of the archaeal community was analysed with the MOTHUR package. We identified 14 OTUs at the 3% genetic distance level and found quite high diversity. Rarefaction curves of richness estimators and diversity indices demonstrated that our collection of isolates represented the archaeal community at Rambla Salada that can be isolated under the conditions used in this work. This is the first report to be published on the culturable archaea at Rambla Salada, an area of considerable ecological interest.