HALOBACILLUS TRUEPERI AS MAJOR ACTIVE MICROBIAL COMPONENT WITH HIGH BIOTECHNOLOGICAL POTENTIAL IN EXTREME SALINE SYSTEM OF SOUTHERN TUNISIA

摘要

Hypersaline environments are widely distributed and include natural habitats (salt marches, sebkhas and lagoons) and man-made evaporation ponds. Soil with higher salt concentrations is often typical for naturally arid regions in which evaporation is rapid and water exchange with the open sea is slow. All these environments, from seawater to NaCl statured brines, are potential habitats for prokaryotic life. The microflora of high salinity ecosystems has attracted a great deal of attention from researchers in this last decade, especially moderate halophilic bacteria, for their adaptation to a wide range of salinity. This group of microorganisms can grow optimally in media containing between 3% to 15% (w/v) salt, and they are widely distributed in different saline habitats. One of the most abundant habitants of these ecological niches are spore-forming bacteria, although generally regarded as deposit spores and not active cells.