Culturable diversity of halophilic bacteria in foreshore soils

Halophilic bacteria are commonly found in natural environments containing significant concentration of NaCl such as inland salt lakes and evaporated sea-shore pools, as well as environments such as curing brines, salted food products and saline soils. Dependence on salt is an important phenotypic characteristic of halophilic bacteria, which can be used in the polyphasic characterization of newly discovered microorganisms. In this study the diversity of halophilic bacteria in foreshore soils of Daecheon, Chungnam, and Saemangeum, Jeonbuk, was investigated. Two types of media, namely NA and R2A supplemented with 3%, 5%, 9%, 15%, 20% and 30% NaCl were used. More than 200 halophilic bacteria were isolated and BOX-PCR fingerprinting analysis was done for the typing of the isolates. The BLAST identification results showed that isolated strains were composed of 4 phyla, Firmicutes (60%), Proteobacteria (31%), Bacteriodetes (5%) and Actinobacteria (4%). Isolates were affiliated with 16 genera and 36 species. Bacillus was the dominant genus in the phylum Firmicutes, comprising 24% of the total isolates. Halomonas (12%) and Shewanella (12%) were also found as the main genera. These findings show that the foreshore soil of Daecheon Beach and Saemangeum Sea of Korea represents an untapped source of bacterial biodiversity.