Halophile bacteria: examples and characteristics

Halophile bacteria are bacteria that They can survive in high salinity conditions that other organisms cannot tolerate. They classify within extremophile bacteria, which are those that can prosper in extreme conditions. Some halophile bacteria even need these high salinity amounts to develop.

Salinity can be present as sodium chloride or by compositions of different mineral salts. According to the area, this proportion of ions can vary. For example, there may be sodium predominance, chlorides, sulfate, magnesium, ammonium, potassium, carbonates, calcium, phosphates or bicarbonates.

According to the amount of salt they can tolerate, they can be classified as:

• Weak halophiles: Tolerate 3% salinity, such as most marine organisms.
• Moderate halophiles: Tolerate 3 to 15% salinity.
• Extreme halophiles: Tolerate up to 25% salinity.

The characteristics of the most prominent halophile bacteria are the following that we are going to mention:

• Are unicellular and bacterial organisms.
• It is common that they have red or purple pigments to absorb sunlight.
• They can Perform photosynthesis.
• They have one Great osmoregulation in their membranes and in its cytoplasm: this prevents them from decompensating for saline changes.

Halophile bacteria always live in high salinity sites. Most of these areas are located in Dry and hot placesbut they can also be found in industries and food. Such ecosystems with high salinity can be found anywhere in the world, so we can say that they are cosmopolitan species with distribution restriction according to the species.

Some examples of habitats of halophile bacteria are:

• Saline lakes or sea saline: For example, the Great Salado Lake in UTAH United States with 22% salinity or salar of Atacama in Chile with 15 to 30% salinity.
• Seas: For example, the Dead Sea with high amounts of magnesium and 25 to 30% salinity. If you are curious, perhaps this ecology article can be interested in how many species live in the Dead Sea.
• Salty soils: as Alicante in Spain with salinity from 2.4 to 12.7%.
• Saline and cold habitats: Like the hypersaline lakes of Antarctica with 28% salinity.
• Saline and alkaline habitats: Like Lake Venere in Italy with salinity from 9 to 17%.
• Very salty foods: As soy sauce with 6.5 to 10% salinity or cod with 19% salinity. In this way, we already know that they exist Halophile food bacteria.

Halophile bacteria are divided into multiple species. Therefore, here we present some of the most interesting halophile bacteria examples.

• Halanaerobium praevalens: It was one of the bacteria that were isolated from the great salty lake of the United States. It has been found that it is an excellent bioremediadora that on the one hand hijacks carbon and, on the other hand, eliminates toxic aromatic compounds in places with salinity of up to 13%, that is, it is difficult to access for many other procedures.
• Tetragenococcus Halophilus: It is very vital for the production of soy sauce. For the procedure, you need to leave soy and wheat grains with 19% sodium chloride for 9 months in the dark. These bacteria are responsible for transforming the grains into the soy sauce that we know, in addition to providing their only umami and unmistakable flavor aroma ⁽¹⁾.
• Halobacillus spp.: It is a saline bacterium that was found in the Four Ciénagas plaster dunes, in Mexico. From it, proteases were isolated, enzymes that can break proteins. It was shown that they can inhibit enzymes that participate in diabetes. In these pools, multiple halophile bacteria can be found.

By being able to develop in very salty environments, these bacteria have several applications within biotechnology since:

• Are Easy to cultivate.
• They do not have many nutritional requirements.
• Your crops have a very low pollution rate.

In addition to the examples that we mention you, then we talk to you why these halophile bacteria can be used.

• They have been used to make enzymes: For example, some are used to produce aromatizers and dyes for the industry.
• Others have been used to produce polymers: They serve in the oil industry to make raw extraction easier. Other polymers are useful for Biorremediation and ecological restoration work In damaged ecosystems, because they have a great capacity to remove toxic waste from hypersaline wastewater, as occurs in pesticide, herbicide, pharmaceutical factories, oil extraction, talabartars where you process skins, or in olive oil factories.
• They can also be used directly against contaminated environments: such as herbicides and even to remove heavy metals such as mercury, cadmium or copper.
• On the other hand, they can function as stabilizers: Either enzymes, nucleic acids or cells, having utility in biomedical research.

Therefore, we conclude with reflection halophile bacteria have great importance for human beings. If you want to know more about bacteria, do not hesitate to consult the following article that we propose from Ecology Verde about the types of bacteria.

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