Studies on Bacteriorhodopsin Gene and Sequence of 16S rRNA Encoding Genes of Halophilic Archaea of Xinjiang Aibi Lake, China

One hundred and forty-eight strains of halophilic archaea were isolated from 40 samples of soil, lake water, and silt. To study and analyze the species and bacteriorhodopsin (BR) protein resource, partial DNA fragments encoding BR protein from helix C to helix G and 16S rRNA encoding genes from 6 strains of halophilic archaea were amplified by polymerase chain (PCR), and their DNA sequences were determined. The results indicate that the reduced amino acid sequences of BR protein from helix C to helix G of ABDH11 is obviously different from those of other existing proteins. The results of homology analysis on BR gene and16S rRNA and phylogenetic analysis on 16S rRNA show that strains ABDH10 and ABDH40 are novel members of genus Natronorubrum and Natrinema, respectively; the sequence of ABDH40 was obtained from GenBank and the number of sequence is AY989910. The protein from helix C to helix G of ABDH11 is significantly different from that of other strains.