Isolation Of Bacteriophage Infecting Haloalkaliphilic Bacteria In Lake Magadi, Kenya

Samples of water were taken from Lake Magadi, a soda lake in the Rift Valley of Kenya. Bacteriophage lysate was prepared and stored in the dark at -4°C. Bacteria isolated using media for haloalkaliphiles and Aiba and Ogawa medium for marine cyanobacteria were cultured by spread plate technique to form lawns which were tested for plaque formation with phage lysate. Growth rate of the bacteria with and without phage infection was measured using optical density. Genomic DNA was extracted from the bacteria and PCR product obtained using 16S primers. The sequences obtained were aligned to sequences in the NCBI database and phylogenetic analysis done. One of the isolates had over 99% similarity to Idiomarina sp , a member of the Gammaproteobacteria while one had 99% similarity to Rhodobacter sp.of the class Alphaproteobacteria. Phylogenetic analysis showed close clustering of each isolates to members of their respective classes but separated from one another.