Abstract
A number of obligately anaerobic fermentative bacteria are known to degrade a variety of organic substrates such as sugars, amino acids, and others, in the presence of high salt concentrations (up to 3–4 M) to products such as hydrogen, CO2, acetate and higher fatty acids, and ethanol. Our understanding of the fate of these products in hypersaline environments is still extremely limited. The occurrence of bacterial sulfate reduction is well established at salt concentrations of up to 24%; however, the bacteria involved have not yet been isolated in pure culture, and the range of electron donors used is unknown. Halophilic or halotolerant methanogenic bacteria using hydrogen/CO2 or acetate as energy source are notably absent; methanogenesis under hypersaline conditions is probably limited to such substrates as methanol and methylamines, which cannot be expected to be major products of anaerobic degradation of most organic compounds.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Baumgartner, J. G. (1937) The salt limits and thermal stability of a new species of anaerobic halophile. Food Res. 2: 321–329
Brooks, J.M., T.J. Bright, B.B. Bernard & C.R. Schwab (1979) Chemical aspects of a brine pool at the East Flower Garden bank, northwestern Gulf of Mexico. Limnol. Oceanogr. 24: 735–745
Elazari-Volcani, B. (1943) Bacteria in the bottom sediments of the Dead Sea. Nature 152: 274–275
Giani, D., L. Giani, Y. Cohen, W.C. Krumbein (1985) Methanogenesis in the hypersaline Solar Lake (Sinai). FEMS Microbiol. Letters 25: 219–224
Gonzalez, C., C. Gutierrez, C. Ramirez (1978) Halobacterium vallismortis sp. nov. An amylolytic and carbohydrate-metabolizing, extremely halophilic bacterium. Can. J. Microbiol. 24: 710–715
Gottschalk, G. (1981) The anaerobic way of life of prokaryotes. In: M.P. Starr, H. Stolp, H.G. Trüper, A. Balows & H.G. Schlegel (Eds) The Prokaryotes, a Handbook on Habitats, Isolation, and Identification of Bacteria, Vol. II. (pp. 1415–1424). Springer Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York
Hartmann, R., H.-D. Sickinger & D. Oesterhelt (1980) Anaerobic growth of halobacteria. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 77: 3821–3825
Kirkland, D.W. & R. Evans (1981) Source-rock potential of evaporitic environments. Am. Assoc. Petrol. Geol. Bull. 65: 181–190
Klug, M., P. Boston, R. Francois, R. Gyure, B. Javor, G. Tribble & A. Vairavamurty (1985) Sulfur reduction in sediments of marine and evaporite environments. In: D. Sagan (Ed) The Global Sulfur Cycle (pp. 128–157). NASA technical memorandum 87570, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
LaRock, P.A., R.D. Lauer, J.R. Schwarz, K.K. Watanabe & D.A. Wiesenburg (1979) Microbial biomass and activity distribution in an anoxic, hypersaline basin. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 37: 466–470
Lerman, A. (1967) Model of chemical evolution of a chloride lake-the Dead Sea. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 31: 2309–2330
Lortet, M.L. (1892) Researches on the pathogenic microbes of the mud of the Dead Sea. Palest. Expl. Fund, 48–50
Mathrani, I.M. & D.R. Boone (1985) Isolation and characterization of a moderately halophilic methanogen from a solar saltern. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 50: 140–143
Nissenbaum, A., M.J. Baedecker & I.R. Kaplan (1977) Organic geochemistry of Dead Sea sediments. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 36: 709–727
Nissenbaum, A. & I.R. Kaplan (1976) Sulfur and carbon isotopic evidence for biogeochemical processes in the Dead Sea ecosystem. In: J.O. Nriagu (Ed) Environmental Biogeochemistry, Vol. 1. (pp. 309–325). Ann Arbor Science Publishers, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Oremland, R.S. & G.M. King (in press) Methanogenesis in hypersaline environments. In: Y. Cohen & E. Rosenberg (Eds) Microbial Mats: Physiological Ecology of Benthic Microbial Communities. American Society for Microbiology, Washington, D.C.
Oremland, R.S., L. Marsh, C. Culbertson & D.J. DesMarais (1981) Soda Lake III: dissolved gases and methanogenesis. EOS 62: 922
Oremland, R.S., L. Marsh & D.J. DesMarais (1982) Methanogenesis in Big Soda Lake, Nevada: an alkaline, moderately hypersaline desert lake. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 43: 462–468
Oren, A. (1983) Clostridium lortetii sp. nov., a halophilic obligatory anaerobic bacterium producing endospores with attached gas vacuoles. Arch. Microbiol. 136: 42–48
Oren, A. (1986) The ecology and taxonomy of anaerobic halophilic eubacteria. FEMS Microbiol. Rev. 39: 23–29
Oren, A. (1987a) A procedure for the selective enrichment of Halobacteroides halobius and related bacteria from hypersaline sediments. FEMS Microbiol. Letters 42: 201–204
Oren, A. (1987b) The microbial ecology of the Dead Sea. In: K.C. Marshall (Ed) Advances in Microbial Ecology, Vol. 10. (pp. 193–229). Plenum Publishing Company, New York
Oren, A. (in press) Anaerobic degradation of organic compounds in hypersaline environments: possibilities and limitations. In: D.L. Wise (Ed) Biotechnology Applied to Fossil Fuels. CRC Press, Boca Raton
Oren, A., B.J. Paster & C.R. Woese (1984a) Haloanaerobiaceae: a new family of moderately halophilic, obligately anaerobic bacteria. System. Appl. Microbiol. 5: 71–80
Oren, A., H. Pohla & E. Stackebrandt (1987) Transfer of Clostridium lortetii to a new genus Sporohalobacter gen. nov. as Sporohalobacter lorteii comb. nov., and description of Sporohalobacter marismortui sp. nov. Syst. Appl. Microbiol. 9: 239–246
Oren, A., W.G. Weisburg, M. Kessel & C.R. Woese (1984b) Halobacteroides halobius gen. nov., sp. nov., a moderately halophilic anaerobic bacterium from the bottom sediments of the Dead Sea. System. Appl. Microbiol. 5: 58–70
Paterek, J.R. & P.H. Smith (1985) Isolation and characterization of a halophilic methanogen from Great Salt Lake. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 52: 877–881
Phelps, T. & J.G. Zeikus (1980) Microbial ecology of anaerobic decomposition in Great Salt Lake. Annual Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology, Abstract I4, p. 89
Schönheit, P., J.K. Kristjansson & R.K. Thauer (1982) Kinetic mechanism for the ability of sulfate reducers to out-compete methanogens for acetate. Arch. Microbiol. 132: 285–288
Trüper, H.G. (1969) Bacterial sulfate reduction in the Red Sea hot brines. In: E.T. Degens & D.A. Ross (Eds) Hot Brines and Recent Heavy Metal Deposits in the Red Sea (pp. 263–271). Springer Verlag, New York
Ward, D.M. (1978) Biogenesis of methane in Great Salt Lake sediments. Abstracts of the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology, Abstract I49, p. 89
Yu, I.K. & R.E. Hungate (1983) Isolation and characterization of an obligately halophilic methanogenic bacterium. Annual Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology, Abstract I1, p. 139
Zeikus, J.G. (1983) Metabolic communication between biodegradative populations in nature. In: J.H. Slater, R. Whittenbury & J.W.T. Wimpenny (Eds) Microbes in Their Natural Environments. Symposium 34 (pp. 423–462). Society for General Microbiology, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Zeikus, J.G., P.W. Hegge, T.E. Thompson, T.J. Phelps & T.A. Langworthy (1983) Isolation and description of Haloanaerobium praevalens gen. nov. and sp. nov., an obligately anaerobic halophile common to Great Salt Lake sediments. Curr. Microbiol. 9: 225–234
Zhilina, T.N. (1983) New obligate halophilic methane-producing bacterium. Microbiology (English translation) 52: 290–297
Zhilina, T.N. (1986) Methanogenic bacteria from hypersaline environments. System. Appl. Microbiol. 7: 216–222
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Oren, A. Anaerobic degradation of organic compounds at high salt concentrations. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 54, 267–277 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00443585
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00443585