Halorhodospira neutriphila

Halorhodospira neutriphila is a bacterium from the genus of Halorhodospira which has been isolated from a microbial mat from a marine saltern from Rhone Delta in France. The microbial mat forms at the sediment surface and is between 10 and 20 mm thick, below a fine layer (2–3 cm) of gypsum crust. The mat is composed of a red layer of purple bacteria strains below a green layer of cyanobacteria, interspersed with sulfur globules, and occasionally covered by halite deposits. These mat forming microbes live in anoxic muds and sediments and form a benthic mat in a hypersaline lagoon environment where the salinity of the water ranges from 240-320‰ of total salinity. H. neutriphila was isolated from the red layer of the microbial layer and found to be extremely halophilic and well adapted to withstand the extreme saline conditions of their modified marine habitat. The type strain was identified as strain SG 3301T.