Analysis of the low salt transcriptome of Haloferax volcanii

Archaea are well known for inhabiting areas of our planet that are usually hostile for any form of life, hence they are often termed as “extremophiles”. Although also found in common soil or the digestive tract of vertebrates, some species thrive on acidic or alkaline grounds, in submarine black smokers with temperatures surpassing 100°C or live in aquatic areas with a very high salinity.Haloferax volcanii is a halophilic and mesophilic archaeon that was first discovered in the 1930s and isolated from the hypersaline environment of the Dead Sea. Its optimal growth conditions are at 42 °C in around 2 M NaCl and complex nutrient medium, however it can also grow in different synthetic media and at a wide range of temperatures and NaCl concentrations. While NaCl concentrations up to 0.7 M inhibit growth in synthetic glucose media, a concentration of 0.9 M is sufficient to sustain growth at a reduced rate.Here we show for the first time a transcriptome-wide analysis of differential gene expression of cells grown under low salt condition. We cultivated cells at an optimal NaCl concentration of 2.1 M in glucose media and compared the expression profile of these to cells grown in 0.9 M NaCl after 26 and 68 h. differential gene expression profiles of the halophilic archaeon Haloferax volcanii should be analysed as response to low salt conditions in glucose medium (2.1 M vs 0.9 M NaCl) after a short (26 h) and prolonged (68 h) period of time. RNA-Seq was done in duplicates of 3 Samples (2.1 NaCl M after 26h; 0.9 M NaCl after 26h and 0.9 M NaCl after 68 h). Key player genes involved in low salt stress response (26h at 0.9 M NaCl) and low salt adaption (68h at 0.9 M NaCl) shluld be identified.