A Dimastigamœba in the Bed of the Dead Sea

Elazari-Volcani, B.

doi:10.1038/152301a0

Cited by 38 publications

(18 citation statements)

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“…Nonsporeformers are rapidly killed upon suspension in Dead Sea water (Oren and Vlodavsky, 1985). Proof of the existence of an indigenous microbial community in the Dead Sea was first obtained during the pioneering studies of Benjamin Elazari- Volcani (1915 in the late 1930s -early 1940s (Elazari-Volcani, 1940a, 1940bWilkansky, 1936). Volcani set up enrichment cultures using a variety of media containing high salt concentrations, and inoculated these with Dead Sea water or sediment.…”

Section: Early Studies On the Biota Of The Dead Seamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Volcani set up enrichment cultures using a variety of media containing high salt concentrations, and inoculated these with Dead Sea water or sediment. From these cultures he isolated a great diversity of microbes, including unicellular green algae of the genus Dunaliella (Elazari-Volcani, 1940b), red prokaryotes now known as Archaea of the family Halobacteriaceae, colorless Bacteria, and even different ciliate and amoeboid protozoa (Elazari-Volcani, 1943. Dunaliella cells in the Dead Sea are green and of relatively small size; they have been identified as Dunaliella parva or Dunaliella viridis.…”

Section: Early Studies On the Biota Of The Dead Seamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Halophilic Microorganisms and their Environments

Oren

2002

Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology

404

294

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Section: Early Studies On the Biota Of The Dead Seamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Early Studies On the Biota Of The Dead Seamentioning

confidence: 99%

Halophilic Microorganisms and their Environments

Oren

2002

Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology

404

294

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“…This hypersaline lake has an average salinity of 122& and three species of amoebae have been described from its waters; an unidentified limax amoeba, Amoeba limax and A. flowersii (although these two named species are probably invalid taxa). The Dead Sea is also a well-studied hypersaline system but to date, only one unidentified species of eruptive amoeba from benthic mud capable of growth at 150-180& salt has been reported (Elazari-Volcani, 1943;Steinhorn, 1985). Two unidentified amoebae were reported from Lake Eyre in Australia and from the Wadi Naturn Lakes, Egypt (Javor, 1989).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Remarkable Salinity Tolerance of Seven Species of Naked Amoebae (gymnamoebae)

Hauer

Rogerson

2005

Hydrobiologia

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The salinity tolerance of naked amoebae collected from sites ranging from ca. 0& to 160& were compared in laboratory experiments. Amoebae were collected from hypersaline ponds around the perimeter of the Salton Sea, California, where salinities averaged 160&, and directly from the shoreline waters of the Sea where salinities were generally between 44 and 48&. Naked amoebae were also collected from the intertidal zone of a Florida beach, a habitat subject (on occasion) to salinity fluctuations within the range 6-85&. From these combined sites, 6 clones of amoebae were isolated for salinity tolerance experiments (2 marine beach isolates, 2 Salton Sea isolates, and 2 hypersaline pond isolates). A seventh clone, Acanthamoeba polyphaga, a common freshwater/soil amoeba, was obtained from a Culture Collection. Laboratory experiments compared the effects of gradually changing culture salinity versus no salinity acclimatization. Growth rate and culture yield were used as indices of effect. Generally, amoebae were tolerant over a wide range of salinity conditions (in terms of growth and yield) and were not markedly influenced by preconditioning to salinity changes throughout the experiments. Overall, the freshwater amoeba Acanthamoeba grew between 0 and 12&, the marine clones grew in the range of 2-120&, and the Salton Sea clones reproduced between 0 and 138 &. The hypersaline clones were the most resilient and grew between 0 and 270& salt. The survival and activity of large populations of naked amoebae in sites subject to salinity fluctuations suggest that they should be considered in future studies to better understand their, as yet, undefined ecological role.

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“…The pioneering studies of Benjamin Elazari- Volcani (1915Volcani ( -1999 in the late 1930s -early 1940s first showed that the Dead Sea is inhabited by an indigenous community of microorganisms (Elazari-Volcani, 1940a, 1940b, 1943Wilkansky, 1936). The first quantitative determinations of the sizes of the algal and archaeal/bacterial communities were performed only in 1963 (Kaplan and Friedmann, 1970).…”

Section: The Microbiology Of the Dead Sea -Past And Presentmentioning

confidence: 99%