Archaea Genomes - HALOBACTERIUM SALINARUM

Halobacterium salinarum is responsible for the bright pink or red appearance of the Dead Sea and other bodies of salt water

Halobacteria are single-celled, rod-shaped microorganisms that are among the most ancient forms of life and appeared on earth billions of years ago. Halobacteria are archaea that grow optimally in extremely high saline environments (up to 5.5 M NaCl). Their natural habitats are salt evaporation ponds and natural salt lakes and other environments where the salt concentration comes close to saturation. Ocassionally they are isolated from hides and from the surfaces of heavily salted foods.

Halobacterium sp. NRC-1 is as easy to culture as E. coli and serves as an excellent model system for archaeal genetics and functional genomics.

Whole proteome comparisons show the definite archaeal nature of this halophile with additional similarities to the Gram-positive Bacillus subtilis and other bacteria.

Hierarchy Description:

Genus: Halobacterium
Species: salinarum
Strain: NRC-1 / ATCC 700922 / JCM 11081
Genome accession number: AE004437
EMBL reference

Medline reference:

Journal citation	Pubmed ID
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 97(22):12176-12181 (2000)	11016950

Taxonomy: 64091

References:

http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/articles/10_00/halobacterium.shtml