| Summary: |
The solar saltern of Burg El-Arab represents a haline system dominated by potassium, magnesium or sodium. A red-pigmented halophilic archaeon that grew on 5M NaCl and lysed in distilled water was isolated. Based on 16S rDNA sequencing, polar lipids analyses, G+C content in addition to phenotypic studies, the strain was identified as Halobacterium salinarum. Comparative tests between the local isolate and other H. salinarum reference strains revealed some differences in biochemical characters. |