Salt stress tolerant genes in halophilic and halotolerant bacteria: Paradigm for salt stress adaptation and osmoprotection.

Abstract

Salinity stress is one of the major factors negatively affecting growth and productivity in living organisms including plants and bacteria resulting in significant losses worldwide. Therefore, it would be fruitful to develop salinity stress tolerant useful species and also to understand the mechanism of stress tolerance that simulate the production of bioactive osmotic compatible solute which are of great significance to cope with hostile salt stress conditions, and to have industrial and pharmaceuticals applications as well. A prerequisite for molecular studies is the identification of genes involved in the accumulation of compatible solutes.In this back drop, this review highlights various studies investigating salt stress tolerant genes from different halophilic / halotolerant bacteria, focusing on recent developments in this area