Journal of Zhejiang University SCIENCE
(ISSN 1009-3095, Monthly)

2005   Vol. 6B   No. 2   p.142-146

Isolation and characterization of a novel strain of Natrinema containing a bop gene

XU Xue-wei¹, WU Min^*1, HUANG Wei-da²

(¹School of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China)
(²School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China)
^*E-mail: wumin@cls.zju.edu.cn
Received May 13, 2004; revision accepted Oct. 28, 2004

Abstract: A novel member of extremely halophilic archaea, strain AJ2, was isolated from Ayakekum Lake located in Altun Mountain National Nature Reserve of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in China. The strain AJ2 requires at least 10% (w/v) NaCl and grows 10% to 30% (optimum at 20%). Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rDNA sequence comparison revealed that strain AJ2 clustered to three Natrinema species with less than 97.7% sequence similarities, suggesting AJ2 is a novel member of Natrinema. A bacteriorhodopsin-encoding (bop) gene was subsequently detected in the AJ2 genome using the polymerase chain reaction technique. The cloning and sequencing of a 401 base pairs fragment indicated the deduced amino acid sequence of bop from AJ2 is different from that reported for bacteriorhodopsins. This is the first reported detection of a bop gene in Natrinema.

Key words: Halophilic archaea, Phylogeny, Bacteriorhodopsin
doi:10.1631/jzus.2005.B0142             CLC number: Q78