Plasmids

PLASMIDS IN ARCHAEA FROM EXTREME HIGH ALTITUDE ANDEAN LAKES (HAAL)
María Eugenia Farias, Julián Rafael Dib, Marcos Javier Maldonado
PROIMI-CONICET (Planta Piloto de Procesos IndustrialesMicrobiológicos) Av. Belgrano y Pje. Caseros, Tucumán(4000) Argentina. www.limla.com.ar . E-mail: mefarias@proimi.org.ar

Introduction:
Puna is a unique natural area covering northern Chile, western Bolivia,central and southern Peru and north-western Argentina (NOA). High altitude Andean wetlands are characterized by extreme conditions such as large daily air temperature fluctuations, ranging from 20° Cduring the day to −40°C at night [1], high UV incidence, arsenic concentrations, salinity, and oligotrophy [2, 3]. In this context was created a extremophile culture collection with tolerance to UVradiations [1]. In Socompa lake and Tolar “sea eye” (Fig. 1) living stromatolites were found in February and August 2009 [4]. Halophilic Archaea live in natural environments or in evaporation ponds ofsalt water, where salt concentration is very high (up to 5 M or 25 %), high light intensity, low oxygen tension. This work focuses on the molecular study of plasmids in Archaea isolated from pristinehigh altitude wetlands in Argentina (Table 1).

A

B

Results:
Plasmids in Archaea
Plasmid (sizes 8 kb, 5 kb and 2 kb approximately) in AT8 and A23 (Fig. 2 A); (sizes 8 kb and 5 kbaproximately) in A30, AT6, AT4, AT9 and AT5 (Fig.2 B)

▲ Figure 1: A. Tolar “sea eye” (masl 3,500 m, pH 5); B. Socompa lake (masl 3,565 m, pH 8,5). Salta Province, Argentina. Table 1: Strains isolated fromwater and sediments from Argentinean high-altitude wetlands.
Strain Natrialba sp. AT4 Natrialba sp. AT5 Natrialba sp. AT6 Natrialba sp. AT7 Natrialba sp. AT8 Natrialba sp. AT9 Halopiger sp. A23Halorubrum sp. A29 Natronorubrum sp. A30 Accession number* FN870351 FN870352 FN870353 FN870354 FN870355 FN870356 FN870358 FR690814 FR690815 Isolation place Tolar (wat) Tolar (wat) Tolar (wat) Tolar (wat)...