The oxic-anoxic transition zone (OATZ) of freshwater sediments, where opposing gradients exist of reduced iron and sulfide with oxygen, creates a suitable environment for microorganisms that derive energy from the oxidation of iron or sulfide. Gradient microcosms incubated with freshwater sediment showed rapid microbial turnover of sulfide and oxygen compared with sterile systems. Microcosms with FeS as a substrate also showed growth at the OATZ

Saline, meromictic lakes with significant depth are usually formed as a result of salt mining activity. Ocnei Lake is one of the largest Transylvanian (Central Romania) neutral, hypersaline lake of man-made origin. We aimed to survey the seasonal dynamics of archaeal diversity in the water column of Ocnei Lake by employing microbiological methods as well as molecular techniques based on the sequence analysis of the 16S rRNA gene. We found that archaeal

Archaea that live at high salt concentrations are a phylogenetically diverse group of microorganisms. They include the heterotrophic haloarchaea (class Halobacteria) and some methanogenic Archaea, and they inhabit both oxic and anoxic environments. In spite of their common hypersaline environment, halophilic archaea are surprisingly diverse in their nutritional demands, range of carbon sources degraded (including hydrocarbons and aromatic compounds)

Haloalkaliphiles differ from natronophiles by their requirement for chloride ions in addition to high alkalinity. Natronophilic bacteria grow optimally in soda medium buffered at alkaline pH by a combination of NaHCO3 and Na2CO3. The majority of known haloalkaliphilic and natronophilic prokaryotes are isolated from saline-alkaline ecosystems such as soda lakes and saline-alkaline soils. A great taxonomic and metabolic biodiversity is found in soda

The inorganic sulfur oxidation by obligate haloalkaliphilic chemolithoautotrophs was only recently discovered and investigated. These autotrophic sulfur oxidizing bacteria (SOB), capable of oxidation of inorganic sulfur compounds at moderate to high salt concentration and at high pH, can be divided into three genera belonging to the γ subdivision of the Proteobacteria: Thioalkalimicrobium, Thioalkalivibrio and Thioalkalispira. Their taxonomy, metabolic

Two novel membrane-bound yellow pigments natronochrome (1) and chloronatronochrome (2) were isolated from the obligately chemolithoautotrophic sulfur-oxidizing natrono(alkali)philic bacterium Thialkalivibrio versutus strain ALJ 15. They were derivatives of fully unsaturated fatty acids with a phenyl group, and their structures were determined by spectral data.

A chemolithoautotrophic sulfur-oxidizing bacterium (SOB) strain ALCO 1 capable of growing at both near-neutral and extremely alkaline pH was isolated from hypersaline soda lakes in S-W Siberia (Altai, Russia). Strain ALCO 1 represents a novel separate branch within the halothiobacilli in the Gammaproteobacteria, which, so far, contained only neutro-halophilic SOB. On the basis of its unique phenotypic properties and distant phylogeny, strain ALCO

Salt adaptation in chemolithotrophic alkaliphilic sulfur-oxidizing strains belonging to genera Thioalkalimicrobium and Thioalkalivibrio has been studied by determination of salt-dependent changes in fatty acid and compatible solute composition. In both alkaliphilic groups, represented by the low salt-tolerant Thioalkalimicrobium aerophilum strain AL 3T and the extremely salt-tolerant Thioalkalivibrio versutus strain ALJ 15, unsaturated fatty acids