Structural diversity of membrane lipids in members of halobacteriaceae

This minireview gives an updated and consolidated summary of taxonomic clas sification correlated with membrane phospholipid, glycolipid, and core lipi d structural diversity within the family Halobacteriaceae. We also point ou t that the recently reported diversity in the membrane core lipid structure of a putative strain of Halobacterium (Halobacterium halobium strain IAM 1 3167) (Morita ef al., Biosci. Biotechnol. Biochem., 62, 596-598, 1998) is n ot correct since the strain used by the authors has for some time been reco gnized not to be a member of the genus Halobacterium but a member of haloba cteria group 2 (Grant and Larsen, Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriolog y, Vol.3, pp.2216-2233, 1989), which has recently been designated as a new genus, Natrinema (McGenity et al., Int. J. Syst. Bacteriol. 48, 1187-1196, 1998).