title: A halocin-H4 mutant Haloferax mediterranei strain retains the ability to inhibit growth of other halophilic archaea.
abstract: Many members of the Halobacteriaceae were found to produce halocins, molecules that inhibit the growth of other halophilic archaea. Halocin H4 that is produced by Haloferax mediterranei and inhibits the growth of Halobacterium salinarum is one of the best studied halocins to date. The gene encoding this halocin had been previously identified as halH4, located on one of Hfx. mediterranei megaplasmids. We generated a mutant of the halH4 gene and examined the killing ability of the Haloferax mediterranei halH4 mutant with respect to both Halobacterium salinarum and Haloferax volcanii. We showed that both wild-type Hfx. mediterranei and the halH4 mutant strain efficiently inhibited the growth of both species, indicating halocin redundancy. Surprisingly, the halH4 deletion mutant exhibited faster growth in standard medium than the wild type, and is likely to have a better response to several nucleotides, which could explain this phenotype.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel, adit.naor@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Adit
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Naor
authors.forename: Yael
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yair
authors.forename: Uri
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Gophna
mesh_terms: D019843:Archaeal Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000633:toxicity*; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000187:drug effects; D019766:Genes, Archaeal; D019617:Halobacterium salinarum / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D019623:Haloferax mediterranei / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D019622:Haloferax volcanii / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D009154:Mutation; D010455:Peptides / Q000235:genetics / Q000633:toxicity*
chemical_list: D019843:Archaeal Proteins; D010455:Peptides
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