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Funtonal metagenomic of salt resistance

Dataset homepage

Citation

MGnify (2019). Funtonal metagenomic of salt resistance. Sampling event dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/63wsnk accessed via GBIF.org on 2025-06-24.

Description

Hypersaline environments are considered some of the most extreme habitats on earth and microorganisms have developed diverse molecular mechanisms of adaptation to withstand these conditions. The present study was aimed at identifying novel genes involved in salt resistance from the microbial communities of brines and the rhizosphere of the halophyte Arthrocnemum from the Es Trenc saltern (Mallorca, Spain). The bacterial and archaeal diversity assessed by pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA gene libraries revealed the presence of microbial communities that are typical in such environments. Metagenomic libraries were constructed with DNA from brine and rhizosphere samples, they were transferred to the osmosensitive strain Escherichia coli MKH13, and screened for salt-resistant clones. As a result, a total of eleven genes that confer salt resistance were identified, some of which encode for well known proteins previously related to osmoadaptation as a glycerol and a proton pump, whereas other genes encode for proteins not previously related to this function as RNA and DNA helicases, an endonuclease III (Nth) and hypothetical proteins of unknown function. Furthermore, four of the retrieved genes were cloned and expressed in Bacillus subtilis and interestingly, three of them exhibited also salt resistance in this bacterium, broadening the spectrum of bacterial species where these genes can operate. This is the first report of salt resistance genes recovered from different metagenomes of a hypersaline environment, which will help to further elucidate novel molecular mechanisms of salt resistance.

Sampling Description

Sampling

Hypersaline environments are considered some of the most extreme habitats on earth and microorganisms have developed diverse molecular mechanisms of adaptation to withstand these conditions. The present study was aimed at identifying novel genes involved in salt resistance from the microbial communities of brines and the rhizosphere of the halophyte Arthrocnemum from the Es Trenc saltern (Mallorca, Spain). The bacterial and archaeal diversity assessed by pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA gene libraries revealed the presence of microbial communities that are typical in such environments. Metagenomic libraries were constructed with DNA from brine and rhizosphere samples, they were transferred to the osmosensitive strain Escherichia coli MKH13, and screened for salt-resistant clones. As a result, a total of eleven genes that confer salt resistance were identified, some of which encode for well known proteins previously related to osmoadaptation as a glycerol and a proton pump, whereas other genes encode for proteins not previously related to this function as RNA and DNA helicases, an endonuclease III (Nth) and hypothetical proteins of unknown function. Furthermore, four of the retrieved genes were cloned and expressed in Bacillus subtilis and interestingly, three of them exhibited also salt resistance in this bacterium, broadening the spectrum of bacterial species where these genes can operate. This is the first report of salt resistance genes recovered from different metagenomes of a hypersaline environment, which will help to further elucidate novel molecular mechanisms of salt resistance.

Method steps

  1. Pipeline used: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/metagenomics/pipelines/4.1

Taxonomic Coverages

Geographic Coverages

Bibliographic Citations

  1. Mirete S, Mora-Ruiz MR, Lamprecht-Grandío M, de Figueras CG, Rosselló-Móra R, González-Pastor JE. 2015. Salt resistance genes revealed by functional metagenomics from brines and moderate-salinity rhizosphere within a hypersaline environment. Front Microbiol vol. 6 - DOI:10.3389/fmicb.2015.01121

Contacts

originator
IMEDEA
metadata author
IMEDEA
administrative point of contact
IMEDEA
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