Haloarcula argentinensis
Classification
Domain: Archaea
Phylum: Euryarchaeota
Class: Halobacteria
Order: Halobacteriales
Family:Halobacteriaceae
Genus: Haloarcula
Species: argentinensis
Species
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NCBI: Taxonomy |
Haloarcula argentinensis
Description and Significance
Recently Haloarcula argentinensis was isolated from Argentinian salt flats. Along with argentinensis, mukohaitaei was found within the same location. Haloarcula are extremely halophilic archaea. H. argentinensis thrives in soil concentrations of 2.5 M NaCl and 100 mM Mg 2+. After a week of being culture on agar plates they formed orange colonies that were 2mm in diameter, the individual cells that formed were mostly triangular disks. After prolonged culture, argentinensis produced a glutinous extracellular material.
Genome Structure
Due to the recent discovery of Haloarcula argentinensis, the number of genomes is unknown. However, there are 13 nucleotide sequences for H. argentinensis with lengths ranging from 489-1827.
Cell Structure, Metabolism and Life Cycle
Haloarcula argentinensis is capable of movement due to the flagella present. Evidence for the flagella was concluded by the microscopic research.
Of the two archaea found in Argentina one of the two was Haloarcula argentinensis. H. argentinensis is catalase and oxidase positive and is able to use various kinds of sugars (sucrose, maltose, glucose, galactose, mannose, ribose, and glycerol) and to acidify the medium. Strain arg-1T or H. argentinensis growth was stimulated by fructose, and neither strain utilized lactose.
Ecology and Pathogenesis
Habitat: Haloarcula argentinensis thrives in environments with a saline concentration of 2.5 M NaCl and temperatures around 40 degrees celsius. Haloarcula argentinensis also grew well in soil with concentrations of 4.5 M NaCl.
When Haloarcula argentinensis was exposed to to novobiocin (5 pg/ml), pravastatin (10 pg/ml), and anisomycin (10 pg/ml) it was completely inhibited whereas when exposed to penicillin (10 IU/ml), kanamycin (30 pg/ml), and chloramphenicol (30 pg/ml) it was resistant.
Thin layer chromatography of whole organism methanolysates revealed that they contain ether-linked isoprenoid lipids, they could grow in the presence of antibiotics effective against eubacteria, but not in the presence of antibiotics effective against eukaryotes, they could grow aerobically only in the presence of high concentration of NaCl but not at salinity levels below 2.5 M. Since they belong to the other Halobacteriales they possessed bacterial rhodopsins. Rhodopsins only belong to Halobacteriales.
A study was performed at Tuz Lake, turkey where a novel enzyme for Turkish flora was found, alpha-aminolevulinic acid dehydrates (ALAD) was found. It was determined that ALAD was H. argentinensis. Since H. argentinensis has a wide pH range (3-12), high resistance to heavy metals, ability to survive in high salt concentrations, and wide temperature range, H argentinensis is capable of being a biomarker for lead contamination.
Also further studies promise Archaea will be valuable to prospective biological technologies.
References
Korcan, S. E., et al. "Delta]-Aminolevulinic Acid Dehydratase of Haloarcula Argentinensis Isolated from Tuz Lake in Turkey." Environmental monitoring and assessment 169.1-4 (2010): 229-36. ProQuest. Web. 20 Apr. 2014.
Tamura, T., S. Watanabe, and K. Ihara. "Haloarcula argentinensis sp. nov. and Haloarcula mukohataei sp. nov., Two New Extremely Halophilic Archaea Collected in Argentina." International Journal of systematic bacteriology 47 (): 73-77. Print.
Author
Page authored by Andrew Stoffel, student of Prof. Ned Walker and Kazem Kashefi at Michigan State University.
