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The STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI issue article summary
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Abstract: Halophiles are widespread in the three domains of life; nevertheless, there are few halophilic eukaryotes able to thrive in extreme salinity conditions in comparison to prokaryotes. For that reason, most research on microorganisms adapted to hypersaline habitats has been focused on Archaea and Bacteria, with microbial eukaryotes receiving much less attention. Hereby, we expose a research about eukaryotic microorganisms living in a solar saltern pond located in the Odiel marshlands (Huelva), at the southwest of Spain. In this work, we used a culture-independent method to study the eukaryotic population in the brine ponds at 33% salinity. We constructed and characterized a library of PCR amplified 18S rRNA genes with genomic DNA extracted from a water sample as template. In addition, we isolated several microalgae strains and we identified them by PCR amplified 18S rRNA gene sequence comparison with DNA databases. Finally, we studied their pigments composition by High Performance Liquid Chromatography. This study means the first characterization of the eukaryotic microbial diversity of the extreme saline water of this environment. We found diverse microalgae belonging to the Dunaliella genus, and various protozoan predators related to the Colpodella genus. Concerning the pigments, we found that the isolated microalgae produced neoxanthin, violaxanthin, antheraxanthin, lutein, chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, and β-carotene. Following studies will be focused on the bioactive capacity of these pigments, testing their antitumor, antimicrobial and antioxidant activities.
Keywords: carotenoids, microalgae, protist, saltern, 18S rRNA clone library. |
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