Haloarchaea are the predominant microflora of hypersaline econiches such as solar salterns, soda lakes, and estuaries where the salinity ranges from 35 to 400 ppt. Econiches like estuaries and solar crystallizer ponds may contain high concentrations of metals since they serve as ecological sinks for metal pollution and also as effective traps for river borne metals. The availability of metals i...

We have designed a gene cassette for expression of the bleomycin-resistance protein from Streptoalloteichus hindustanus (ShBle) in the extremely halophilic archaeon Haloferax volcanii, and shown that transformed haloarchaea are resistant to bleomycin. Recombinant ShBle was purified by a one-step affinity-chromatography procedure as a correctly folded, dimeric protein. ShBle thus provides a usef...

Halophilic archaea, also referred to as haloarchaea, dominate hypersaline environments. To survive under such extreme conditions, haloarchaea and their enzymes have evolved to function optimally in environments with high salt concentrations and, sometimes, with extreme pH and temperatures. These features make haloarchaea attractive sources of a wide variety of biotechnological products, such as...

Flamingoes (Phoenicopterus spp.) whose plumage displays elegant colors, inhabit warm regions close to the ocean throughout the world. The pink or reddish color of their plumage originates from carotenoids ingested from carotenoid-abundant food sources, since flamingoes are unable to synthesize these compounds de novo. In this study, viable red-colored archaeal strains classified as extremely ha...

Genetic diversity and phylogenetic analyses of culturable extremely haloarchaea isolated from marine solar saltern pond in Mumbai, IndiaDipak T. Nagrale , Renu, Priyanka Das

The powerful combination of genetic and biochemical analysis has provided many key insights into the structure and function of the chromosomal DNA replication machineries of bacterial and eukaryotic cells. In contrast, in the archaea, biochemical studies have dominated, mainly due to the absence of efficient genetic systems for these organisms. This situation is changing, however, and, in this ...

The two DNA intercalators, actinomycin D and 2-methyl-9-hydroxy-ellipticine, and the DNA minor groove ligant DAPI inhibited the growth of the haloarchaeon Halobacterium sp. GRB and bind to its plasmid pGRB-1. In contrast to specific DNA topoisomerase II inhibitors, they produced neither double-stranded breaks nor relaxation of plasmidic DNA. The two DNA intercalators inhibited positive supercoi...