Exploring the diversity of halophilic microbial communities at high salt concentrations and traditional salt-fermented food products in some marine areas of Vietnam using a metagenomics approach.

- Publications: 01
1- Violetta La Cono, Francesco Smedile, Francesca Crisafi, Laura Marturano, Stepan V. Toshchakov, Gina La Spada, Ninh Khắc Bản and Michail M. Yakimov, 2022. Wintertime Simulations Induce Changes in the Structure, Diversity and Function of Antarctic Sea Ice-Associated Microbial Communities. MDPI, Microorganisms 2022, 10, 623. https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10030623.
- Other products: Support training 01 PhD 

Suggestions
Recent studies by our partners and collaborators have shown that, in fact, many halophilic archaea have been obtained from the brine and sediments of hypersaline lakes containing can be specifically enriched and isolated on media with native cellulose or chitin as the sole carbon source. They appear to be the main degraders of these insoluble polysaccharides in their salt-saturated environments. So that, within the framework of CNR-VAST bilateral cooperation in the isolation and cultivation of haloarchaea, we propose to expand the sampling area in typical regions of Italy (Trapani, Motya, Marsala and Bari) and Vietnam (with more than 20 salt producing provinces in the South, Central and North of Vietnam such as Ninh Thuan, Nghe An, Thanh Hoa, Binh Thuan, Khanh Hoa, Ben Tre, Bac Lieu, Thai Binh and Nam Dinh), production areas salt production using solar energy, corresponding to the Mediterranean Sea and the East Sea to isolate and culture haloarchaea bacteria capable of producing polysaccharide hydrolytic enzymes.
Conclusion
Due to objective influences, the process of implementing the project fell during the time of the widespread COVID-19 epidemic, so collecting samples as well as carrying out cooperative activities faced many difficulties, the project had to ask for a 1-year extension to complete the project. Up to now, the project has completed the set tasks, organized 01 delegation went out, welcomed 01 delegation, and together with partners published 01 international article and draft 01 article expected to be published in December 2023. and supported the training of 01 graduate student.