FLAGELLA OF HALOPHILIC ARCHAEA - BIOCHEMICAL AND GENETIC-ANALYSIS

The protein composition of flagella of the archaea Halobacterium salin arium, Halobacterium volcanii, Halobacterium saccharovorum, and Natron obacterium pharaonis 12 was studied. It was found that the flagella co nsist of several different flagellins, which are glycosylated in H. sa linarium, H. volcanii, and H. saccharavorum. The known primary sequenc e of flagellin genes of Halobacterium halobium R(1)M(1) allowed the sy nthesis of oligonucleotides for the 5' and 3' ends of the locus A, whi ch contains two of these five genes. A fragment of chromosomal DNA enc oding H. halobium flagellins Al and A2 was amplified using these prime rs and used as a probe for detecting homologous fragments in DNAs from the studied archaea. Southern hybridization showed that DNA species i solated from all studied archaea contain sequences homologous to the g enes flg Al and flg A2 of H. halobium.