Hydrolysis of N′-benzoyl-d-arginine-p-nitroanilide by members of the Haloanaerobiaceae: additional evidence that Haloanaerobium praevalens is related to endospore-forming bacteria

Three out of the four described halophilic obligately anaerobic bacteria of the family Haloanaerobiaceae hydrolyze d-BAPA (N′-benzoyl-d-arginine-p-nitroanilide), while showing no or little l-BAPA hydrolyzing activity. This property was shown earlier to be characteristic only of non-halophilic Gram-positive endospore-forming bacteria of the genera Bacillus and Clostridium. These results suggest that Haloanaerobium praevalens, which has never been shown to produce endospores, but was shown to be related to the endosphere-forming representatives of the Haloanaerobiaceae on the basis of 16S rRNA nucleotide sequence data, shares other properties characteristics of the endospore-forming bacteria. Neither significant d-BAPA nor l-BAPA hydrolyzing activity was found in Sporohalobacter lortetii.