Halophiles in Saline Soils of Humboldt Bay (Arcata, CA).

Moderately halophilic bacteria were isolated from hydric soils of the Humboldt Bay salt marsh (Arcata, CA). Soil samples from seven different sites, spanning the low and high tide marks, were inoculated onto a series of nutritional media (plus 13%, 16%, 19%, and 22% NaCl), as well as a modified medium created by Ventosa et al. (1982). Procedures of Quillaguaman et al. (2004) were used to isolate and characterize resulting colony forming units.  Many different strains of bacteria grew on all media. Different physical traits of the colony forming units were determined.  Bacteria were subcultured onto a 10% NaCl maintenance media for pure isolation of the strains. DNA was extracted, amplified with PCR (with R1492-16s and F27-16s primers), and sequenced.  BLAST nucleotide searches indicate the presence of Halomonas sp. similar to what has been found in beach sands and solar salterns.