Halorubrum lacusprofundi is a psychrophile isolated from Deep Lake, a hypersaline lake in Antarctica. H. lacusprofundi can grow between 0^oC and 42^oC with optimal growth at 31^oC (Franzmann et al., 1988). H. lacusprofundi differs from the already sequenced Halobacterium sp. NRC-1 (Ng et al., 2000) in that it can grow on a variety of carbon sources including glucose, mannose, acetate, and ethanol, while NRC-1 has a more limited metabolic capacity and has not been shown to use sugars. The other sequenced halophile, Haloarcula marismortui, on the other hand has been shown to use a variety of sugars (Baliga et al., 2004). H. lacusprofundi, as a psychrophile, provides a contrast to both sequenced halophiles, and comparison of the three will highlight adaptations to low temperature. These results can be compared with those of psychrophilic methanogens (Saunders et al. 2003) to determine whether they use similar mechanisms for cold adaptation.

References

Baliga, N. S., Bonneau, R., Facciotti, M. T., Pan, M., Glusman, G., Deutsch, E. W., Shannon, P., Chiu, Y., Weng, R. S., Gan, R. R., Hung, P., Date, S. V., Marcotte, E., Hood, L., and Ng, W. V. 2004. Genome sequence of Haloarcula marismortui: a halophilic archaeon from the Dead Sea. Genome Res. 14, 2221-2234.

Franzmann, P. D., Stackebrandt, E., Sanderson, K., Volkman, J. K., Cameron, D. E., Stevenson, P. L., McMeekin, T. A., and Burton, H. R. 1988. Halobacterium lacusprofundi, sp. nov., a halophilic bacterium isolated from Deep Lake, Antarctica. Syst. Appl. Microbiol. 11, 20-27.

Ng, W. V., Kennedy, S. P., Mahairas, G. G., Berquist, B., Pan, M., Shukla, H. D., Lasky, S. R., Baliga, N. S., Thorsson, V., Sbrogna, J., Swartzell, S., Weir, D., Hall, J., Dahl, T. A., Welti, R., Goo, Y. A., Leithauser, B., Keller, K., Cruz, R., Danson, M. J., Hough, D. W., Maddocks, D. G., Jablonski, P. E., Krebs, M. P., Angevine, C. M., Dale, H., Isenbarger, T. A., Peck, R. F., Pohlschroder, M., Spudich, J. L., Jung, K.-H., Alam, M., Freitas, T., Hou, S., Daniels, C. J., Dennis, P. P., Omer, A. D., Ebhardt, H., Lowe, T. M., Liang, P., Riley, M., Hood, L., and DasSarma, S. 2000. Genome sequence of Halobacterium species NRC-1. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 97, 12176-12181.

Saunders, N. F. W., Thomas, T., Curmi, P. M. G., Mattick, J. S., Kuczek, E., Slade, R., Davis, J., Franzmann, P. < D., Boone, D., Rusterholtz, K., Feldman, R., Gates, C., Bench, S., Sowers, K., Kadner, K., Aerts, A., Dehal, P., Detter, C., Glavina, T., Lucas, S., Richardson, P., Larimer, F., Hauser, L., Land, M., and Cavicchioli, R. 2003. Mechanisms of thermal adaptation revealed from the genomes of the antarctic Archaea Methanogenium frigidum and Methanococcoides burtonii. Genome Res. 1580-1588.