Question

Halophiles can comfortably live in
(a) Dead Sea
(b) Dal Lake
(c) Arabian Sea
(d) Godavari

Answer 1

Halophiles are bacterial extremophiles that live in high salt concentrated conditions. Hence, they would be comfortable living in a water body with a very high salt concentration.

Complete step by step answer:
- Halophiles are ‘salt-loving’ organisms and thrive in high salt concentrations. Therefore, these organisms would be present in hypersaline environments.
- Examples of hypersaline environments are Owens Lake (California), Great Salt Lake (Utah), and the Dead Sea.
- The other places mentioned are freshwater lakes while the Arabian Sea does not have conditions as hypersaline as the Dead Sea. Halophiles live in water bodies with salt concentrations five times that of the ocean.
- Examples of halophiles include bacteria such as Halococcus and fungus such as Wallemia.
- Halophiles are further categorized on the level of their salt tolerance, from slight to moderate and to extreme.
- Most halophiles belong to the Archaea domain and the kingdom Monera. They are distinguished from Eubacteria by the presence of a different cell wall structure and their ability to survive in extremely harsh conditions.

So, the correct answer is the ‘Dead Sea’.

Note:
- Halophiles are primarily archaea but also are found in prokaryotes like bacteria and eukaryotic species such as the alga Dunaliella and the fungus Wallemia.
- Other examples of extremophiles are thermoacidophiles that live in hot springs, methanogens that live in marshy areas, acidophiles that live in highly acidic conditions, alkaliphiles that live in highly alkaline conditions, piezophiles or barophiles that live in highly pressured conditions, osmophiles that live in high sugar conditions.