In this study we analyzed the diversity of the halophilic bacteria community from Rambla Salada during the years 2006 and 2007. We collected a total of 364 strains, which were then identified by means of phenotypic tests and by the hypervariable V1-V3 region of the 16S rRNA sequences (around 500 bp). The ribosomal data showed that the isolates belonged to Proteobacteria (72.5%), Firmicutes (25.8%), Actinobacteria (1.4%), and Bacteroidetes (0.3%) phyla, with Gammaproteobacteria the predominant class. Halomonas was the most abundant genus (41.2% isolates) followed by Marinobacter (12.9% isolates) and Bacillus (12.6% isolates). In addition, 9 strains showed <97% sequence identity with validly described species and may well represent new taxa. The diversity of the bacterial community analyzed with the DOTUR package determined 139 operational taxonomic units at 3% genetic distance level. Rarefaction curves and diversity indexes demonstrated that our collection of isolates adequately represented all the bacterial community at Rambla Salada that can be grown under the conditions used in this work. We found that the sampling season influenced the composition of the bacterial community, and bacterial diversity was higher in 2007; this fact could be related to lower salinity at this sampling time.
Keywords: Rambla Salada; bacteria; bactéries; biodiversity; biodiversité; halophiles; taxonomie; taxonomy.