Thermophilic and Halophilic Prokaryotes Isolated from Extreme Environments of Armenia and Their Biotechnological Potential

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Abstract

Numerous geothermal springs of different geotectonic origins and with different physicochemical properties as well as various saline and hypersaline environments with a broad microbial diversity and opportunities for newly isolated microorganisms for many industrial applications are found in the territory of Armenia. Despite intensive microbiological studies on terrestrial geothermal springs and hypersaline environments in various regions of the globe, very little is known about the microbial diversity of similar ecosystems in Armenia. During the past decades, the phylogenetic diversity of microbial community thriving in geothermal springs and hypersaline environments located on the territory of Armenia has been explored following both cultivation-based and culture-independent approaches. The thermophilic bacterial members studied were microbes belonging to the Bacillus, Geobacillus, Anoxybacillus, Paenibacillus, Sporosarcina, Thermoactinomyces, Rhodobacter, Methylocaldum, Arcobacter, Desulfomicrobium, Desulfovibrio, Treponema, and archaeal genus Methanoculleus, whereas the isolated halophilic microorganisms were mainly found to be the members of bacterial phylum Firmicutes and archaeal family Halobacteriaceae. This chapter contains a review of the results of microbial diversity analyses of geothermal springs, saline–alkaline soils, and subterranean salt deposits of Armenia with special emphasis to its distribution, ecological significance, and biotechnological potential.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants from the Eurasia Programme of the Norwegian Center for International Cooperation in Education (CPEA-2011/10081, CPEA-LT-2016/10095) and partially supported by the RA MES State Committee of Science, in the frames of the research projects №15 T-1F399 and № 18 T-1F261, Armenian National Science and Education Fund based in New York, USA, to HP (ANSEF-NS-microbio 2493, 3362 and 4676).

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Panosyan, H. (2020). Thermophilic and Halophilic Prokaryotes Isolated from Extreme Environments of Armenia and Their Biotechnological Potential. In: Singh, R., Manchanda, G., Maurya, I., Wei, Y. (eds) Microbial Versatility in Varied Environments. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3028-9_2

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