Characterization of heterotrophic prokaryote subgroups in the Sfax coastal solar salterns by combining flow cytometry cell sorting and phylogenetic analysis

• DOI: 10.1007/s00792-011-0364-5
• Publication Date: 2011-03-19T04:13:12Z
• Authors: Hana Trigui; Salma Masmoudi; Céline Brochier-A...; Aude Barani; Gérald Grégori; Michel Denis; Sam Dukan; Sami Maalej
• Keywords: Alphaproteobacteria; Prokaryote

Here, we combined flow cytometry (FCM) and phylogenetic analyses after cell sorting to characterize the dominant groups of prokaryotic assemblages inhabiting two ponds increasing salinity: a crystallizer pond (TS) with salinity 390 g/L, non-crystallizer (M1) 200 g/L retrieved from solar saltern Sfax in Tunisia. As expected, FCM analysis enabled resolution high nucleic acid content (HNA) low (LNA) prokaryotes. Next, performed taxonomic bacterial archaeal communities comprising most populated clusters by 16S rRNA gene clone library. We show for first time that presence HNA LNA cells could also be extended populations. Archaea were detected all M1 TS samples, whereas representatives Bacteria only TS. Although sequences remained undetermined, other clones frequently affiliated Haloquadratum Halorubrum. In contrast, belonged Alphaproteobacteria class (Phyllobacterium genus) samples Bacteroidetes phylum (Sphingobacteria Salinibacter samples.