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Flooding an extreme alkaline-saline soil decreased alkalinity and salinity, which will change the bacterial populations. Bacterial 16S rDNA libraries were generated of three soils with different electrolytic conductivity (EC), i.e. soil with EC 1.7 dS m(-1) and pH 7.80 (LOW soil), with EC 56 dS m(-1) and pH 10.11 (MEDIUM soil) and with EC 159 dS m(-1) and pH 10.02 (HIGH soil), using universal bacterial oligonucleotide primers, and 463 clone 16S rDNA sequences were analyzed phylogenetically. Library proportions and clone identification of the phyla Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria, Cyanobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes and Cloroflexi showed that the bacterial communities were different. Species and genera of the Rhizobiales, Rhodobacterales and Xanthomonadales orders of the alpha- and gamma-subdivision of Proteobacteria were found at the three sites. Species and genera of the Rhodospirillales, Sphingobacteriales, Clostridiales, Oscillatoriales and Caldilineales were found only in the HIGH soil, Sphingomonadales, Burkholderiales and Pseudomonadales in the MEDIUM soil, Myxococcales in the LOW soil, and Actinomycetales in the MEDIUM and LOW soils. It was found that the largest diversity at the order and species level was found in the MEDIUM soil as bacteria of both the HIGH and LOW soils were found in it.

The soil of the former lake Texcoco is an extreme environment localized in the valley of Mexico City, Mexico. It is highly saline and alkaline, where Na+, Cl(-), HCO3(-) and CO3(2-) are the predominant ions, with a pH ranging from 9.8 to 11.7 and electrolytic conductivities in saturation extracts from 22 to 150 dS m(-1). Metagenomic DNA from the archaeal community was extracted directly from soil and used as template to amplify 16S ribosomal gene by PCR. PCR products were used to construct gene libraries. The ribosomal library showed that the archaeal diversity included Natronococcus sp., Natronolimnobius sp., Natronobacterium sp., Natrinema sp., Natronomonas sp., Halovivax sp., "Halalkalicoccus jeotgali" and novel clades within the family of Halobacteriaceae. Four clones could not be classified. It was found that the archaeal diversity in an alkaline-saline soil of the former lake Texcoco, Mexico, was low, but showed yet uncharacterized and unclassified species.

An anaerobic, halophilic, and fermentative bacterium, strain S200(T), was isolated from a core sample of a deep hypersaline oil reservoir. Cells were rod-shaped, non-motile, and stained Gram-positive. It grew at NaCl concentrations ranging from 6 to 26% (w/v), with optimal growth at 15% (w/v) NaCl, and at temperatures between 25 and 47°C with an optimum at 40-45°C. The optimum pH was 7.3 (range 6.2-8.8; no growth at pH 5.8 and pH 9). The doubling time in optimized growth conditions was 3.5 h. Strain S200(T) used exclusively carbohydrates as carbon and energy sources. The end products of glucose degradation were lactate, formate, ethanol, acetate, H(2), and CO(2). The predominant cellular fatty acids were non-branched fatty acids C(16:1), C(16:0), and C(14:0). The G + C mole% of the DNA was 32.7%. Phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence revealed that strain S200(T) formed a distinct lineage within the family Halobacteroidaceae, order Halanaerobiales, and was most closely related to Halanaerobaculum tunisiense DSM 19997(T) and Halobacteroides halobius DSM 5150(T), with sequence similarity of 92.3 and 91.9%, respectively. On the basis of its physiological and genotypic properties, strain S200(T) is proposed to be assigned to a novel species of a novel genus, for which the name Halanaerocella petrolearia is proposed. The type strain of Halanaerocella petrolearia is strain S200(T) (=DSM 22693(T) = JCM 16358(T)).

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