Halomicrobium mukohataei (Ihara et al. 1997) Oren et al. 2002 is the type species of the genus Halomicrobium. It is of phylogenetic interest because of its isolated location within the large euryarchaeal family Halobacteriaceae. H. mukohataei is an extreme halophile that grows essentially aerobically, but can also grow anaerobically under a change of morphology and with nitrate as electron acce...

Water-biomolecule interactions have been extensively studied in dilute solutions, crystals, and rehydrated powders, but none of these model systems may capture the behavior of water in the highly organized intracellular milieu. Because of the experimental difficulty of selectively probing the structure and dynamics of water in intact cells, radically different views about the properties of cell...

The aim of the present study was to obtain insights into the relationship between the chemical (salt content and pH) and physico-mechanical (humidity and compressive strength) properties of mineral-based materials from historic buildings with salt efflorescence and the growth and biodiversity of halophilic microorganisms. Samples were mainly characterized by pH 6.5-8.5 and a moisture content of...

Marine microorganisms are uncommon etiologies of skin and skin structure infections, that is, wound infections. We report a case of severe wound infection, caused by the marine Photobacterium damselae (Vibrionaceae), in a 64-year-old male patient, returning from Australia. The isolate tested positive for pPHDD1, a plasmid conferring high-level virulence. Furthermore, the wound was coinfected wi...

Process conditions for the synthesis and subsequent secretion of ectoine and hydroxyectoine were optimized in a cascade of two continuously operated bioreactors. In the first bioreactor the halophile bacterium Chromohalobacter salexigens was grown under continuous hyperosmotic and thermophilic conditions and therefore under constant stress driving the cells to accumulate large amounts of ectoin...

The chiral compound (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate (3HB) is naturally produced by many wild type organisms as the monomer for polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB). Both compounds are commercially valuable and co-polymeric polyhydroxyalkanoates have been used e.g., in medical applications for skin grafting and as components in pharmaceuticals. In this paper we investigate cultivation strategies for production of 3H...

Salinicoccus halodurans H3B36 is a moderate halophile that was isolated from a 3.2-m-deep sediment sample in Qaidam Basin, China. Our results suggest that N(α)-acetyl-α-lysine can accumulate and act as a probable thermolyte in this strain. The accumulation mechanism and biosynthetic pathway for this rare compatible solute were also elucidated. We confirmed that the de novo synthesis pathway of ...

Catalase in extracts of the extreme halophile Halobacterium cutirubrum exhibits up to threefold stimulation by 0.5 to 1.5 m monovalent salts and by 0.1 m divalent salts. Above these concentrations, inhibition of enzyme activity is observed. The inhibitory effect, and to some extent the stimulation, is salt-specific; the effectiveness of a salt in inhibiting enzyme activity depends on both catio...

Molecular phylogenetic analysis of naturally occurring archaeal communities in deep-sea hydrothermal vent environments was carried out by PCR-mediated small subunit rRNA gene (SSU rDNA) sequencing. As determined through partial sequencing of rDNA clones amplified with archaea-specific primers, the archaeal populations in deep-sea hydrothermal vent environments showed a great genetic diversity, ...

The genes involved in the oxidative pathway of choline to glycine betaine in the moderate halophile Halomonas elongata DSM 3043 were isolated by functional complementation of an Escherichia coli strain defective in glycine betaine synthesis. The cloned region was able to mediate the oxidation of choline to glycine betaine in E. coli, but not the transport of choline, indicating that the gene(s)...