Prokaryotic Communities in the Thalassohaline Tuz Lake, Deep Zone, and Kayacik, Kaldirim and Yavsan Salterns (Turkey) Assessed by 16S rRNA Amplicon Sequencing

Prokaryotic communities and physico-chemical characteristics of 30 brine samples from the thalassohaline Tuz Lake (Salt Lake), Deep Zone, Kayacik, Kaldirim, and Yavsan salterns (Turkey) were analyzed using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing and standard methods, respectively. Archaea (98.41% of reads) was found to dominate in these habitats in contrast to the domain Bacteria (1.38% of reads). Representatives of the phylum Euryarchaeota were detected as the most predominant, while 59.48% and 1.32% of reads, respectively, were assigned to 18 archaeal genera, 19 bacterial genera, 10 archaeal genera, and one bacterial genus that were determined to be present, with more than 1% sequences in the samples. They were the archaeal genera Haloquadratum, Haloarcula, Halorhabdus, Natronomonas, Halosimplex, Halomicrobium, Halorubrum, Halonotius, Halolamina, Halobacterium, and Salinibacter within the domain Bacteria. The genera Haloquadratum and Halorhabdus were found in all sampling sites. While Haloquadratum, Haloarcula, and Halorhabdus were the most abundant genera, two uncultured Tuz Lake Halobacteria (TLHs) 1 and 2 were detected in high abundance, and an additional uncultured haloarchaeal TLH-3 was found as a minor abundant uncultured taxon. Their future isolation in pure culture would permit us to expand our knowledge on hypersaline thalassohaline habitats, as well as their ecological role and biomedical and biotechnological potential applications.

A Study on the Effect of Altitude on Shell Thickness in Goose Eggs

Backround: Egg shell plays role in the respiration, regulation of humidity, protection against diseases and integrity of egg. Therefore thickness of egg shell is an important feature. Many factors contribute to the formation of the shell thickness. The effect of altitude is still the subject of research.Methods: 103 eggs were randomly collected from locations at 915 m, 920 m, 931 m, 935 m, 939 m, 960 m, 968 m, 995 m, 1150 m and 1.350 m altitudes laid out between Tuz Lake and Hasan Mountain and the thickness of the shell at the Blunt end, Equatorial part and Sharp end of the eggs were measured. Conclusion: The average thickness of the shell at the blunt end, equatorial part and sharp end were 0.54 mm, 0.58 mm and 0.60 mm respectively. These differences were statistically significant. When considering the effect of altitude on these three points and general egg thickness, the average values for general thickness varied from 0.53 mm to 0.60 mm, this was 0.51 mm - 0.56 mm for blunt end, 0.53 mm to 0.61 mm for equatorial part and 0.54 mm to 0.62 mm for sharp end. The differences according to altitude noted among equatorial part and sharp end were statistically significant. The correlations between the altitude with Blunt end, Equatorial part, Sharp end and General were insignificant. The results indicated that these altitudes had no obvious effect on eggshell thickness and that the difference detected in thickness could be caused by other factors that are ought to be determined by further studies.