Halobacterium salinarum is a model organism for the halophilic branch of the archaea. It is rod-shaped, motile, lives in highly saline environments (4M salt and higher), and is one of the few species known that can live in saturated salt solutions. Mass cultures of Halobacterium salinarum as shown in the pictures below can be recognized by their typical color, which originates from bacterioruberins. Halobacterium salinarum is depicted in its natural environment and as a species that colonizes salines.
Massive growth of Halobacterium salinarum in a saline.
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Massive growth of Halobacterium salinarum in a saline.
It can live with light as only energy source due to the activity of the retinal protein bacteriorhodopsin, a light-driven proton pump, which has been studied in great detail and has become a paradigm of membrane proteins in general and transport proteins in particular. From this point, our focus has widened to study additional processes in which retinal proteins are involved: the energy metabolism of Halobacterium salinarum and the tactic responses with its associated signal transduction network.