Salinibacter ruber

Salinibacter ruber is an extremely halophilic red bacterium that was found in saltern crystallizer ponds in Alicante and Mallorca, Spain in 2002 by Antón et al. This environment has very high salt concentrations, and Salinibacter ruber itself cannot grow at below 15% salt concentration, with an ideal concentration between 20–30%.

Salinibacter ruber
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Bacteria
Phylum:
Bacteroidetes
Class:
Bacteroidetes
Order:
Bacteroidetes Order II. Incertae sedis
Family:
Rhodothermaceae
Genus:
Salinibacter
Species:
Salinibacter ruber

Antón et al., 2002

This bacterium is notable for its halophilic lifestyle, a trait exhibited primarily by members of Archaea. In general, bacteria do not play a large role in microbial communities of hypersaline brines at or approaching NaCl saturation. However, with the discovery of S. ruber, this belief was challenged. It was found that S. ruber made up from 5% to 25% of the total prokaryotic community of the Spanish saltern ponds.[1]

Salinibacter ruber is most closely related to the genus Rhodothermus which is a thermophilic, slightly halophilic bacterium. Though genetically it is considered to be closest to the Rhodothermus genus, it is most comparable to the family Halobacteriaceae, because of similarity in protein structure.[1] It is red-pigmented, motile, rod-shaped, and extremely halophilic. The type strain is strain M31T(= DSM 13855T = CECT 5946T).

References
  1. Antón J; Oren A; Benlloch S; Rodríguez-Valera F; Amann R; Rosselló-Mora R (March 2002). "Salinibacter ruber gen. nov., sp. nov., a novel, extremely halophilic member of the Bacteria from saltern crystallizer ponds". International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. 52 (Pt 2): 485–91. doi:10.1099/00207713-52-2-485. PMID 11931160. Retrieved 2013-07-24.

Further reading


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.