Nitrogen metabolism in haloarchaea

Bonete, Mari­a José, Martínez‑Espinosa, Rosa María, Pire, Carmen, Zafrilla, Basilio and Richardson, David J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6847-1832 (2008) Nitrogen metabolism in haloarchaea. Saline Systems, 4. ISSN 1746-1448

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Abstract

The nitrogen cycle (N-cycle), principally supported by prokaryotes, involves different redox reactions mainly focused on assimilatory purposes or respiratory processes for energy conservation. As the N-cycle has important environmental implications, this biogeochemical cycle has become a major research topic during the last few years. However, although N-cycle metabolic pathways have been studied extensively in Bacteria or Eukarya, relatively little is known in the Archaea. Halophilic Archaea are the predominant microorganisms in hot and hypersaline environments such as salted lakes, hot springs or salted ponds. Consequently, the denitrifying haloarchaea that sustain the nitrogen cycle under these conditions have emerged as an important target for research aimed at understanding microbial life in these extreme environments. The haloarchaeon Haloferax mediterranei was isolated 20 years ago from Santa Pola salted ponds (Alicante, Spain). It was described as a denitrifier and it is also able to grow using NO3-, NO2- or NH4+ as inorganic nitrogen sources. This review summarizes the advances that have been made in understanding the N-cycle in halophilic archaea using Hfx mediterranei as a haloarchaeal model. The results obtained show that this microorganism could be very attractive for bioremediation applications in those areas where high salt, nitrate and nitrite concentrations are found in ground waters and soils.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	sdg 7 - affordable and clean energy ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/affordable_and_clean_energy
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Biological Sciences
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Organisms and the Environment Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Molecular Microbiology Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Centre for Molecular and Structural Biochemistry
Depositing User:	EPrints Services
Date Deposited:	01 Oct 2010 13:36
Last Modified:	15 May 2023 14:30
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/187
DOI:	10.1186/1746-1448-4-9

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