Microbial diversity in clay-salt sludge of the potash enterprise (Berezniki, Perm krai)

From clay-salt sludge of the enterprise Berezniki-2 of OJSC "Uralkali" (Berezniki, Perm Territory) 138 bacterial strains were isolated and basing on morphological and genetic features have been combined in 28 morpho(genomo)groups. Representatives of each group have been identified while analyzing the nu-cleotide sequences of 16S rRNA gene, and comparative analysis showed that those strains belonged to the classes Alphaproteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria and Actinobacteria. All the bacteria studied are halotolerant, because they are capable of growing on media without NaCl supplementation and with in-creased salt concentration (up to 150 g/l). Most strains grew in alkaline conditions (pH 9.0) and utilized several mono- and polyaromatic compounds as a sole source of carbon, including polycyclic aromatic hy-drocarbons, phthalates.