Production of ten hydrolytic enzymes was qualitatively studied on the haloarchaeal strains isolated
from Aran-Bidgol hypersaline lake in the central desert area of Iran. A total of 293 haloarchea strains were selected
among 300 extremely halophilic isolated prokaryotes. Accordingly, 142, 141, 128, 64, 38, 16, 7, 3 and 1 archaeal
isolates were able to produce DNase, amylase, lipase, inulinase, pullulanase, protease, cellulase, chitinase and xylanase,
respectively. None was able to produce pectinase activity. Combined hydrolytic activity was also detected in many
strains. A total of 0.3 % of the strains showed 6 hydrolytic activities, 0.3 % of the strains had 5 hydrolytic activities,
5.4 % of the strains presented 4 hydrolytic activities, 25 % of the strains presented 3 hydrolytic activities, 28 % of the
strains presented 2 hydrolytic activities and 18 % of the strains presented 1 hydrolytic activity. According to their
phenotypic characteristics and comparative partial 16 S rRNA sequence analysis, the halophilic strains were all
identified as members of family
Halobacteriaceae
within 12 different taxa from the following genera:
Halorubrum,
Haloarcula,
Natrinema,
Halovivax and
Natronomonas. Most enzymes production rate was observed in the genera
Halorubrum,
Haloarculaand
Natrinema whereas; there was not any detectable amount of enzyme production in the
genera
Halovivax and
Natronomonas. The most hydrolytic isolate with 6 combinatorial enzyme production belonged
to the genus
Natrinema. This investigation showed that the extreme halophilic archaea from Aran-Bidgol lake are a
potential source of hydrolytic enzyme under stress conditions and may have possess commercial value.
