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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, June 2006, p. 3887-3895, Vol. 72, No. 6
0099-2240/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.02214-05
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Microbial Diversity in Maras Salterns, a Hypersaline Environment in the Peruvian Andes

Lenin Maturrano,1,{dagger} Fernando Santos,1 Ramon Rosselló-Mora,2 and Josefa Antón1*

División de Microbiología, Departamento de Fisiología, Genética y Microbiología, Universidad de Alicante, 03080 Alicante, Spain,1 Grup d'Oceanografia Interdisciplinar, Institut Mediterrani d'Estudis Avançats (CSIC-UIB), 07190 Esporles, Mallorca, Spain2

Received 18 September 2005/ Accepted 14 March 2006

Maras salterns are located 3,380 m above sea level in the Peruvian Andes. These salterns consist of more than 3,000 little ponds which are not interconnected and act as crystallizers where salt precipitates. These ponds are fed by hypersaline spring water rich in sodium and chloride. The microbiota inhabiting these salterns was examined by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), 16S rRNA gene clone library analysis, and cultivation techniques. The total counts per milliliter in the ponds were around 2 x 106 to 3 x 106 cells/ml, while the spring water contained less than 100 cells/ml and did not yield any detectable FISH signal. The microbiota inhabiting the ponds was dominated (80 to 86% of the total counts) by Archaea, while Bacteria accounted for 10 to 13% of the 4',6'-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) counts. A total of 239 16S rRNA gene clones were analyzed (132 Archaea clones and 107 Bacteria clones). According to the clone libraries, the archaeal assemblage was dominated by microorganisms related to the cosmopolitan square archaeon "Haloquadra walsbyi," although a substantial number of the sequences in the libraries (31% of the 16S rRNA gene archaeal clones) were related to Halobacterium sp., which is not normally found in clone libraries from solar salterns. All the bacterial clones were closely related to each other and to the {gamma}-proteobacterium "Pseudomonas halophila" DSM 3050. FISH analysis with a probe specific for this bacterial assemblage revealed that it accounted for 69 to 76% of the total bacterial counts detected with a Bacteria-specific probe. When pond water was used to inoculate solid media containing 25% total salts, both extremely halophilic Archaea and Bacteria were isolated. Archaeal isolates were not related to the isolates in clone libraries, although several bacterial isolates were very closely related to the "P. halophila" cluster found in the libraries. As observed for other hypersaline environments, extremely halophilic bacteria that had ecological relevance seemed to be easier to culture than their archaeal counterparts.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: División de Microbiología, Departamento de Fisiología, Genética y Microbiología, Universidad de Alicante, Apto. 99, San Vicente del Raspeig, 03080 Alicante, Spain. Phone: 34-965903870. Fax: 34-9659099569. E-mail: anton{at}ua.es.

{dagger} Present address: Unidad de Virología y Genética Molecular, Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Av. Circunvalación cdra. 28, San Borja, Lima, Peru.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, June 2006, p. 3887-3895, Vol. 72, No. 6
0099-2240/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.02214-05
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Burns, D. G., Janssen, P. H., Itoh, T., Kamekura, M., Li, Z., Jensen, G., Rodriguez-Valera, F., Bolhuis, H., Dyall-Smith, M. L. (2007). Haloquadratum walsbyi gen. nov., sp. nov., the square haloarchaeon of Walsby, isolated from saltern crystallizers in Australia and Spain. Int. J. Syst. Evol. Microbiol. 57: 387-392 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
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  • Maturrano, L., Valens-Vadell, M., Rossello-Mora, R., Anton, J. (2006). Salicola marasensis gen. nov., sp. nov., an extremely halophilic bacterium isolated from the Maras solar salterns in Peru.. Int. J. Syst. Evol. Microbiol. 56: 1685-1691 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


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