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Publicaciones

Descubra todos nuestros artículos publicados en revistas y nuestros capítulos de libro.

​Denitrifying haloarchaea within the genus Haloferax display divergent respiratory phenotypes, with implications for their release of nitrogenous gases

Haloarchaea are extremophiles, generally thriving at high temperatures and salt concentrations, thus, with limited access to oxygen. As a strategy to maintain a respiratory metabolism, many halophilic archaea are capable of denitrification. Among them are members of the genus Haloferax, which are abundant in saline/hypersaline environments.

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Biosynthesis of Silver Chloride Nanoparticles (AgCl-NPs) from Extreme Halophiles and Evaluation of Their Biological Applications

The biosynthesis of nanoparticles (NPs) has gained an overwhelming interest due to their biological applications. However, NPs synthesis by pigmented extreme halophiles remains underexplored. The NPs synthesis using pigmented halophiles is inexpensive and less toxic than other processes. In this study, pigmented halophilic microorganisms (n = 77) were screened to synthesize silver chloride nanoparticles (AgCl-NPs) with silver nitrate as metal precursors, and their biological applications were assessed. 

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​Assessment of Haloferax mediterranei Genome in Search of Copper-Molecular Machinery With Potential Applications for Bioremediation

Heavy metals are essential micronutrients at low concentrations, serving as cofactors for relevant microbial enzymes (i.e., respiratory nitrate and nitrite reductases NADH dehydrogenase-2, amine oxidase, etc.), but they become harmful cellular intoxicants at significant low concentrations compared to other chemical compounds. The increasing need to incorporate bioremediation in the removal of heavy metals and other contaminants from wastewaters has led extremophiles to the spotlight of research. 

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Halophilic Carotenoids and Breast Cancer: From Salt Marshes to Biomedicine

Breast cancer is the leading cause of death among women worldwide. Over the years, oxidative stress has been linked to the onset and progression of cancer. In addition to the classical histological classification, breast carcinomas are classified into phenotypes according to hormone receptors (estrogen receptor-RE-/progesterone receptor-PR) and growth factor receptor (human epidermal growth factor receptor-HER2) expression. 

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Distribution of Denitrification among Haloarchaea: A Comprehensive Study

Microorganisms from the Halobacteria class, also known as haloarchaea, inhabit a wide range of ecosystems of which the main characteristic is the presence of high salt concentration. These environments together with their microbial communities are not well characterized, but some of the common features that they share are high sun radiation and low availability of oxygen. To overcome these stressful conditions, and more particularly to deal with oxygen limitation, some microorganisms drive alternative respiratory pathways such as denitrification.

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In Silico Analysis of the Enzymes Involved in Haloarchaeal Denitrification

During the last century, anthropogenic activities such as fertilization have led to an increase in pollution in many ecosystems by nitrogen compounds. Consequently, researchers aim to reduce nitrogen pollutants following different strategies. Some haloarchaea, owing to their denitrifier metabolism, have been proposed as good model organisms for the removal of not only nitrate, nitrite, and ammonium, but also (per)chlorates and bromate in brines and saline wastewater. Bacterial denitrification has been extensively described at the physiological, biochemical, and genetic levels.

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Analysis of Polyhydroxyalkanoates Granules in Haloferax mediterranei by Double-Fluorescence Staining with Nile Red and SYBR Green by Confocal Fluorescence Microscopy

Haloferaxmediterranei is a haloarchaeon of high interest in biotechnology because it produces and mobilizes intracellular polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) granules during growth under stress conditions (limitation of phosphorous in the culture media), among other interesting metabolites (enzymes, carotenoids, etc.). The capability of PHA production by microbes can be monitored with the use of staining-based methods.

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Haloarchaea: A Promising Biosource for Carotenoid Production

Haloarchaea are halophilic microorganisms belonging to the Archaea domain that inhabit salty environments (mainly soils and water) all around the world. Most of the genera included in this group are able to produce carotenoids at significant concentrations (even wild-type strains). The major carotenoid produced by the cells is bacterioruberin (and its derivatives), which is only produced by this kind of microbes.

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Haloferax mediterranei Cells as C50 Carotenoid Factories

Haloarchaea produce C50 carotenoids such as bacterioruberin, which are of biotechnological in-terest. This study aimed to analyze the effect of different environmental and nutritional conditions on the cellular growth and dynamics of carotenoids accumulation in Haloferax mediterranei. The maximum production of carotenoids (40 µg·mL−1) was obtained during the stationary phase of growth, probably due to nutrient-limiting conditions (one-step culture). By seven days of culture, 1 mL culture produced 22.4 mg of dry weight biomass containing 0.18 % (w/w) of carotenoids.

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Hypersaline environments as natural sources of microbes with potential applications in biotechnology: The case of solar evaporation systems to produce salt in Alicante County (Spain).

Extremophilic microbes show a unique metabolism due to the adaptations they display to deal with extreme environmental parameters characterizing the extreme ecosystems that they inhabit (high salt concentration, high temperatures, and extreme pH values, high exposure to solar radiation etc.). Halophilic microorganisms characterised and isolated from saltmarshes, brines, salted ponds, salty lagoons etc. have recently attracted attention due to their potential biotechnological applications (as whole cells used for different purposes like wastewater treatments, or their biomolecules: enzymes, antibiotics, carotenoids, bioplastics). 

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