Evidence for salt-associated restriction pattern modifications in the archaeobacterium Haloferax mediterranei

DNA restriction pattern modifications were detected when Haloferax mediterranei was grown in low (10%) salt concentrations. After cells were grown again in optimal (25%) salt concentrations, the original pattern was recovered. These salt-associated DNA modifications were revealed with 5% of the 160 DNA fragments cloned and used as probes in hybridization experiments. Patterns obtained when genomic DNA was digested with different restriction enzymes showed that these modifications are related not to insertions or deletions in genome but to modifications of some specific sequences.