Characterization of a bacterioruberin-producing Haloarchaea isolated from the marshlands of the Odiel river in the southwest of Spain

Abstract

In this work, we describe the isolation, identification, pigment characterization, and optimization of the culture conditions for a haloarchaea strain isolated from salt evaporation ponds in the Odiel river, at Southwest of Spain. The haloarchaea belongs to the genus Halorobrum, as deduced from the analysis of its 16S rRNA encoding gene and has been designated as Halorubrum sp. SH1. The growth conditions for the new strain were optimized studying temperature, NaCl concentration, agitation rate and light intensity. The C50-carotenoids, bacterioruberin, and its derivatives bisanhydrobacterioruberin and trisanhydrobacterioruberin, were found to be the predominant pigments produced by this strain of Halorubrum, as determined using HPLC-DAD and UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS techniques. This extremely halophilic archaeon could be a good candidate for the production of bacterioruberins of high added-value due to their coloring, antioxidant, and possible anticancer properties. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 32:592-600, 2016.

Keywords: bacterioruberin; carotenoids; evaporation ponds; haloarchaea; halorubrum.