2.2. Isolation of Halophilic Archaea from the Rhizospheric and
Non-rhizospheric Soils of Salsola stocksii and Atriplex
amnicola
Modified growth medium (MGM) with NaCl 250 g/L, casamino acids 7.5 g/L,
peptone 5 g/L, yeast extract 2 g/L, KCl 30 g/L, trisodium citrate 3 g/L,
MgSO4 24 g/L, pH 7.2; was used for the isolation and
purification of archaea from rhizospheric and non-rhizospheric soils ofSalsola stocksii and Atriplex amnicola [30].These soil samples were collected from Khewra Salt Mine, Pakistan. For
isolation of individual archaeal strains, the soil sample was mixed
thoroughly, sieved and then one gram of the representative soil sample
was used for further analysis. All samples were serially diluted upto
10-10 and 100 μL of each dilution from
10-3 to 10-6 were spread on MGM
plates for counting colony forming units (CFU) per gram of soil (dry
weight). Plates were incubated at 37 °C until the appearance of archaeal
colonies. Single, well-isolated colonies were selected, grown in MGM
broth overnight, and stored in 33% glycerol at -80 °C for subsequent
characterization.