Novel archaeal phylotypes from an East African alkaline saltern

DNA has been extracted on site from the brines of the final crystallizing pond of an alkaline saltern at Lake Magadi, Kenya. Amplification of 16S rRNA genes followed by cloning, sequencing, and phylogenetic analysis has revealed the presence of two distinct new archaeal lineages. The majority of cloned sequences showed greater than 95% identity to each other, but only 88%-90% similarity to any cultivated haloalkaliphilic Archaea, and form a distinct cluster within the known Haloarchaea. Two cloned genes showed close similarity to each other but only 76% similarity to any known archaeal sequence, and therefore represent a distinct phylotype only distantly related to the euryarchaeotal branch of the Archaea.