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

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