Authors
Lampi, M. J., Nordman, E. M., Gregorova, P., Ravantti, J. J., Sarin, P.
Abstract
Archaea constitute a diverse group of organisms, many of which inhabit extreme environments, such as haloarchaea that dominate hypersaline ecosystems, like solar salterns. Although sampling of solar salterns and other hypersaline environments have resulted in numerous haloarchaeal isolates, including 3 classified and 25 unclassified Halogranum species, no complete genome has been reported for any member of this genus. Here we present the first comprehensive study of Halogranum sp. SS5-1 isolated from a solar saltern in Samut Sakhon, Thailand. Hgn. SS5-1 is a pleomorphic, aerobic heterotroph that thrives in high salinity and moderate temperature and is capable of hydrolysing starch. Its genome consists of a 3.6 Mbp chromosome and seven additional plasmids. Based on our phylogenetic analyses, which establish Hgn. SS5-1 as a distinct species, we propose that it will be classified as the novel species Halogranum roseipondis sp. nov. SS5-1T. Additionally, we report that Hgn. roseipondis sp.nov. SS5-1T is infected by Hagravirus capitaneum (HGTV-1), the only virus known to infect a Halogranum host. HGTV-1 exhibits a unique head-tailed morphology and encodes the largest archaeal virus dsDNA genome known to date, including 34 tRNA encoding genes. Codon usage analysis of the viral genome suggests partial alignment with host preferences, yet the abundance of viral tRNA genes hints to broader roles, potentially including translation modulation. This study establishes Hgn. roseipondis and HGTV-1 as a novel virus-host system, opening avenues to explore infection dynamics and the roles of virus-encoded tRNA in archaea.
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bioRxiv
The authors list and abstract were imported from bioRxiv on 08 Nov 2025.
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