Phylogenetic analysis of the bacterial community in a crystallizer pond, Pomorie salterns, Bulgaria

• Main Authors: Margarita Kambourova, Iva Tomova, Ivanka Boyadzhieva, Nadja Radchenkova, Evgenia Vasileva-Tonkova
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2017-03-01
• Series: Biotechnology & Biotechnological Equipment
• Subjects: Hypersaline environment; crystallizer pond; halophiles; phylogenetic analysis; bacterial diversity
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13102818.2016.1265900
• ISSN: 1310-2818; 1314-3530

The aim of this study was to investigate the bacterial community habituating P18, the biggest crystallizer pond in Pomorie salterns (34% salinity). The obtained results showed that the bacterial community differs from many previous reports of low bacterial diversity in hypersaline environments and demonstrates unusually high diversity of presented taxa, some unusual domination of diverse genera not reported before as dominant and identification of previously unknown 16S rRNA sequences. The retrieved 23 bacterial operational taxonomic units (OTUs) affiliated with 15 bacterial genera from four phyla – Firmicutes, 47.5%; Proteobacteria, 23.1%; Bacteroidetes, 22%; Deinococcus–Thermus, 2.4%; and one-candidate division SR1, 4.8%. Representatives of the phylum Firmicutes predominated in the bacterial community with almost half of the retrieved sequences. Almost all clones branched together with cultured halophiles or uncultured clones retrieved from saline niches. Despite of the high salt concentration, some of the closest phylogenetic neighbours were moderate halophiles. New sequences represented 42.3% of bacterial OTUs. Some of them formed separate branches with similarity less than 85%.