Culturable bacteriorhodopsin-producing haloarchaea of Tuz Lake (Turkey)

Lake Tuz, the largest hypersaline lake in Turkey, has a great variety of microbial communities that adapted to its extreme environment and produce many industrially important compounds such as photosensitive bacteriorhodopsins. So far, the information about the bacteriorhodopsin-producing haloarchaea species of the lake is still limited. In the present study, archaeal bacteriorhodopsin producers were isolated from three locations of the lake. Their bacteriorhodopsin-producing capability was validated by the purification and SDS-PAGE analysis of the delipidated bacteriorhodopsin molecule. The active isolates were identified by the sequencing of partial 16S rDNA gene regions. According to the results, 11 bacteriorhodopsin-producing isolates grouped in Halobacterium salinarum (4), Halobacterium sp. (3), Haloarcula salaria (2), Haloarcula sp. (1) and Halorubrum sp. (1). Our research demonstrated that Lake Tuz is an important natural source of bacteriorhodopsin-producing haloarchaea and the isolates can be valuable for the related technological applications.