Prokaryotic Diversity of Hot Springs in Balikesir and Kutahya, Turkey

Abstract

The prokaryotic diversity of the hot springs Sindirgi, Gure, and Havran in the Balikesir Province and Eynal in the Kutahya Province, both located in the western part of central Anatolia, was analyzed and compared using cultivation and cultivation-independent methods, including Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization (FISH) and cloning of PCR-amplified fragments of 16S rRNA genes. A total of 66 isolates were obtained from the cultures. They were identified to the species or genus level as Geobacillus, Bacillus, Brevibacillus, Aneurinibacillus, Anoxybacillus, and Aeribacillus. As a result of the FISH study, only bacteria domain signals were received, but arkea domain signals were not. A total of 265 clones from the 16S rRNA gene library were analyzed with Amplified Ribosomal DNA Restriction Analysis. These bacterial clones were identified as the genera Anoxybacillus, Meiothermus, Uncultured bacterium, Aneurinibacillus, Brevibacillus, Bacillus, and Geobacillus. This research highlights the prokaryotic diversity of hot springs in the Balikesir and Kutahya Provinces.