title: The moderately halophilic bacterium Halomonas maura is a free-living diazotroph.
abstract: Halomonas maura is a moderately halophilic bacterium which lives in saline soils and synthesises an exopolysaccharide known as mauran. Strain S-31T grew in a nitrogen-free medium under an N2 atmosphere; the acetylene reduction assay proved positive under specific conditions. We identified the nifH gene in this strain by using degenerate oligonucleotides designed from highly preserved gene sequences obtained from the alignment of a large number of nifH sequences from different microorganisms. Our results lead us to conclude that H. maura is capable of fixing nitrogen under microaerobic conditions.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Microbiología, Facultad de Farmacia, Campus Universitario de Cartuja s/n., 18071 Granada, Spain.
authors.forename: Montserrat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Argandoña
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fernández-Carazo
authors.forename: Inmaculada
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Llamas
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Martínez-Checa
authors.forename: Juan Manuel
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Caba
authors.forename: Emilia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Quesada
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: del Moral
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D020632:Halomonas / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009586:Nitrogen Fixation / Q000235:genetics; D010088:Oxidoreductases / Q000235:genetics; D010802:Phylogeny; D012988:Soil Microbiology
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D010088:Oxidoreductases; C029130:nitrogenase reductase