Natronomonas pharaonis
| Natronomonas pharaonis | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Natronomonas pharaonis | ||||||||||||
| (Soliman & Trüper 1983) Kamekura et al. 1997 |
Natronomonas pharaonis is an archaeon that was firstisolatedfrom soda lakes in Egypt in the early 1980sand described in 1982. This species is characterized by the fact that it is possible for the organisms to tolerate two extreme environmental conditions, namely high salt concentrations and a high pH value.
Physiology and way of life
The strongly alkaline soda lakes have a pH of around 11 and at the same time a salt concentration of over 300 grams per liter of water. Regarding the handling of the high sodium chloride content of the medium, N. pharaonis behaves like its close relatives of the genus Halobacterium , which counter the high extracellular NaCl concentrations with an even higher intracellular potassium chloride concentration and thus counteract the osmotic forces of the environment.
As an adaptation to the extremely high external pH value, N. pharaonis has a moderately increased pH value in the cell, as it is also for other alkaliphilic bacteria, e.g. B. from the genus Bacillus is known. This also makes it possible that important functions of the energy metabolism such. B. the respiratory chain remain functional despite the adverse external circumstances. Amazingly, and in contrast to other organisms growing under alkaline conditions, the usual protons are used for the coupling of the respiratory chain and ATP synthesis in N. pharaonis even under extremely high pH values and not, as in other organisms under these conditions, switch to sodium ions .
Genome research
The analysis of the genome of N. pharaonis by M. Falb et al. from the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Munich it was possible to analyze those survival strategies with which the archaeon can survive and multiply under the deadly environmental conditions of its natural habitats .
literature
- M. Falb, F. Pfeiffer, P. Palm, K. Rodewald, V. Hickmann, J. Tittor and D. Oesterhelt: Living with two extremes: conclusions from the genome sequence of Natronomonas pharaonis . Genome Research 15, pp. 1336-1343.
- Michael Kuhn: Natronomonas pharaonis - Life with two extremes . GenomXPress 1.06