Isolation and characterization of Haloarchaea from low-salinity coastal sediments and waters of Goa

摘要

Halophilic archaea have been routinely isolated from marine salterns and hypersaline lakes with 3.5–4.5 M (20–30%) NaCl1–3. The salinity of sea water (2.5% NaCl concentration) is ten times less than that of the hypersaline environments and hence isexpected to be non-conducive to the growth of extremely halophilic bacteria. Interestingly, three recent reports have indicated the presence of such extreme halophiles from sea waters in Spain, Japan and the United Kingdom4–6. So also existence of non-culturable archaea has been indicated in marine environments7. To investigate the occurrence of haloarchaea in the low-salinity coastal sediments and waters, we surveyed five different locations along the l00 km coastline of Goa, located on the mid westcoast of India.