Scientists at the National Centre for Microbial Resource — National Centre for Cell Science (NCMR-NCCS) in Pune have discovered a new archaeon in Sambhar Lake in Rajasthan.
- It has been named Natrialba swarupiae, after Dr Renu Swarup, secretary, Department of Biotechnology for her initiative in supporting microbial diversity studies in the country.
- The discovery was published in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology which is the only journal that publishes the description of new microbial taxa.
What is Archaeon?
- Archaeon is a kind of microorganism. Archaea are prokaryotes that typically live in extreme environments and sometimes have strange metabolisms.
- They are found in environments that have extreme temperature.
- It is one of three domains of life on earth. The life on Earth is organised into three major groups, or ‘domains’: eukarya, bacteria, and archaea.
- These slow-growing organisms are also present in the human gut, and have a potential relationship with human health. They are known for producing antimicrobial molecules, and for anti-oxidant activity with applications in eco-friendly waste-water treatment .
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Thank you for the news!
Pioneering studies on the microbial ecology of Sambhar lake was started in 1980s. I wish to mention that the first archaeon (Natrialba / Natronobacterium) was isolated from Sambhar Lake by Upasani Vivek N and Desai S. G. (Gujarat University) Ahmedabad.
Publication:
Upasani VN and Desai SG (1990) Sambhar Lake: Chemical composition of the brines and studies on haloalkaliphilic archaebacteria. Archive Microbiology 154: 589-593
Several other papers on haloarchaea, haloalkaliphilic microalgae and the genome of Natrialba has been sequenced by the authors!