Genetic diversity and biogeography of haloalkaliphilic sulphur-oxidizing bacteria belonging to the genus Thioalkalivibrio

A group of 85 isolates of haloalkaliphilic obligately chemolithoautotrophic sulphur-oxidizing bacteria belonging to the genus Thioalkalivibrio were recently obtained from soda lakes in Mongolia, Kenya, California, Egypt and Siberia. They have been analyzed by repetitive extragenic palindromic (rep)-PCR genomic fingerprinting technique with BOX- and (GTG)5-primer set. Cluster analysis was performed using combined fingerprint profiles and a dendrogram similarity value (r) of 0.8 was used to define the same genotype. Fifty-six genotypes were found among the isolates, revealing a high genetic diversity. The strains can be divided into two major clusters, including isolates from the Asiatic (Siberia and Mongolia) and the African (Kenya and Egypt) continents, respectively. The majority (85.9%) of the genotypes were found in only one area, suggesting an endemic character of the Thioalkalivibrio strains. Furthermore, a correlation between fingerprint clustering, geographic origin and the characteristics of the lake of origin was found.