부산대학교 도서관

Halosimplex carlsbadense is a halophilic archeaon that was isolated from a 250 million year old salt crystal from the Salado formation in New Mexico. This rod shaped, gram-negative, obligate aerobe lacks the ability to grow on complex media. Previous growth studies have shown that H. carlsbadense is unable to use carbohydrates, amino-acids, fats or nucleic acids as a source for energy production. The inability to use these molecules as nutrients suggests two possibilities; either that H. carlsbadense possesses novel catabolic pathways or lacks membrane transport enzymes necessary to utilize such substrates. In other aspects, such as the unique biochemistry of H. carlsbadense, this organism displays unique molecular characteristics. H. carlsbadense has at least two divergent 16S rRNA genes B and C. Reverse-transcriptase (RT)-PCR experiments were performed demonstrating expression of both genes B and C. Interestingly, under ideal salt conditions, gene B is preferentially expressed but under altered salt conditions gene C is preferentially expressed.