title: Comparison of bacterial biodiversity and enzyme production in three hypersaline lakes; urmia, howz-soltan and aran-bidgol.
abstract: This research is a comparative study on the diversity of halophilic bacteria with hydrolytic activities in three significant hypersaline lakes; Urmia in the northwest and Howz-Soltan and Aran-Bidgol in the central desert in Iran. Isolated strains from these saline lakes were found to be halotolerant, moderately and extremely halophilic bacteria. The bacteria in each saline lake were able to produce different hydrolytic enzymes including amylase, protease, lipase, DNase, inulinase, xylanase, carboxy methyl cellulase, pectinase and pullulanase. 188, 302, 91 halophilic strains were isolated from Urmia Lake, Howz-Soltan and Aran-Bidgol playa, respectively. The numbers of Gram-positive strains were more than Gram-negatives, and among Gram-positive bacteria; spore-forming bacilli were most abundant. Due to the unique physico-chemical conditions of the lake environments, the hydrolytic activities of isolated strains were significantly different. For instance, isolated strains from Howz-Soltan playa did not produce pectinase, DNase, amylase, lipase and inulinase, while the isolates from Aran-Bidgol playa had a great ability to produce pectinase and DNase. The strains from Urmia Lake were also good producers of DNase but failed to show any chitinase activity. The diversity of halophilic bacteria from the mentioned three saline lakes was also determined using PCR-amplified 16S rRNA followed by phylogenetic analysis of the partial 16S rRNA sequences.
authors.affiliation: Applied Biotechnology Research Center, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Hamid
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Babavalian
authors.affiliation: Extremophiles Laboratory, Department of Microbiology, School of Biology and Center of Excellence in Phylogeny of Living Organisms, College of Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad Ali
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Amoozegar
authors.affiliation: Extremophiles Laboratory, Department of Microbiology, School of Biology and Center of Excellence in Phylogeny of Living Organisms, College of Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Shirin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zahraei
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Science and Research Campus of Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Rokhsareh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rohban
authors.affiliation: Applied Biotechnology Research Center, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Fatemeh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Shakeri
authors.affiliation: Applied Biotechnology Research Center, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mehrdad Moosazadeh
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Moghaddam
keywords: Biodiversity; Extremophiles; Halophile; Hydrolytic enzymes