Open AccessLiving with salt: metabolic and phylogenetic diversity of archaea inhabiting saline ecosystems
Author(s) -
Andrei AdrianŞtefan,
Banciu Horia Leonard,
Oren Aharon
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
fems microbiology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.899
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1574-6968
pISSN - 0378-1097
DOI - 10.1111/j.1574-6968.2012.02526.x
Subject(s) - archaea , halophile , haloarchaea , euryarchaeota , biology , crenarchaeota , ecology , anoxic waters , extremophile , phylogenetic diversity , extreme environment , microorganism , phylogenetics , bacteria , biochemistry , genetics , gene
Archaea that live at high salt concentrations are a phylogenetically diverse group of microorganisms. They include the heterotrophic haloarchaea (class H alobacteria ) and some methanogenic A rchaea, and they inhabit both oxic and anoxic environments. In spite of their common hypersaline environment, halophilic archaea are surprisingly diverse in their nutritional demands, range of carbon sources degraded (including hydrocarbons and aromatic compounds) and metabolic pathways. The recent discovery of a new group of extremely halophilic E uryarchaeota , the yet uncultured N anohaloarchaea , shows that the archaeal diversity and metabolic variability in hypersaline environments is higher than hitherto estimated.