Distribution and Identification of Halophilic Bacteria in Solar Salts Produced during Entire Manufacturing Process

In this study, we determined the changes in microbial numbers in solar salts according to the manufacturing process and storage duration. The salt samples were harvested from salt farms in Shinan (area 2) and Yeonggwang (area 1). They were serially diluted ten-fold and then placed on 4 kinds of cultivable media (mannitol salt agar, eosin methylene blue, plate count agar, and trypticase soy agar). After incubation, we obtained 62 halophilic isolates from the salt samples. Coliform and general bacteria were not detected in all salt samples. By 16S rRNA sequencing analysis, we found 12 kinds of halophilic bacteria belonging to the genera Halobacillus, Halomonas, Bacillus, Idiomarina, Marinobacter, Pseudoalteromonas, Vibrio, Salinivibrio, Virgibacillus, Alteromonas, Staphylococcus and some un-known stains. In our study, we discovered two novel species that have a 16S rDNA sequence similarity below 97%.