Organic Solvent Tolerance of Halophilic Archaea

Biodegradation of organic pollutants by halophilic bacteria and archaea.

Hypersaline environments are important for both surface extension and ecological significance. As all other ecosystems, they are impacted by pollution. However, little information is available on the biodegradation of organic pollutants by halophilic microorganisms in such environments. In addition, it is estimated that 5% of industrial effluents are saline and hypersaline. Conventional nonextr...

Regulated Polyploidy in Halophilic Archaea

Polyploidy is common in higher eukaryotes, especially in plants, but it is generally assumed that most prokaryotes contain a single copy of a circular chromosome and are therefore monoploid. We have used two independent methods to determine the genome copy number in halophilic archaea, 1) cell lysis in agarose blocks and Southern blot analysis, and 2) Real-Time quantitative PCR. Fast growing H....

Discovery of a modified transcription factor endowing yeasts with organic-solvent tolerance and reconstruction of an organic-solvent-tolerant yeast Running title: Organic-solvent tolerance in yeast

Evolutionary advantages of polyploidy in halophilic archaea.

Several species of haloarchaea have been shown to be polyploid and thus this trait might be typical for and widespread in haloarchaea. In the present paper, nine different possible evolutionary advantages of polyploidy for haloarchaea are discussed, including low mutation rate, radiation/desiccation resistance, gene redundancy and survival over geological times and at extraterrestrial sites. Ex...

The immune system of halophilic archaea

Prokaryotes have developed several strategies to defend themselves against foreign genetic elements. One of those defense mechanisms is the recently identified CRISPR/Cas system, which is used by approximately half of all bacterial and almost all archaeal organisms. The CRISPR/Cas system differs from the other defense strategies because it is adaptive, hereditary and it recognizes the invader b...