''Halococcaceae'' is a family of

halophilic The halophiles, named after the Greek word for "salt-loving", are extremophiles that thrive in high salt concentrations. While most halophiles are classified into the domain Archaea, there are also bacterial halophiles and some eukaryotic species, ...

and mostly

chemoorganotrophic Primary nutritional groups are groups of organisms, divided in relation to the nutrition mode according to the sources of energy and carbon, needed for living, growth and reproduction. The sources of energy can be light or chemical compounds; the ...

archaea within the order ''

Halobacteriales In taxonomy, the Halobacteriales are an order of the Halobacteria, found in water saturated or nearly saturated with salt. They are also called halophiles, though this name is also used for other organisms which live in somewhat less concentrate ...

''. The type genus of this family is ''

Halococcus ''Halococcus'' (common abbreviation: ''Hcc.'') is a genus (biology), genus of the Halococcaceae. Ecology ''Halococcus'' is a genus of extreme halophilic archaea, meaning that they require high salt levels, sometimes as high as 32% NaCl, for o ...

.'' Its biochemical characteristics are the same as the order ''

.'' The name ''Halococcaceae'' is derived from the Latin term ''Halococcus,'' referring to the type genus of the family and the suffix "-ceae", an ending used to denote a family. Together, ''Halococcaceae'' refers to a family whose nomenclatural type is the genus ''

.''

Current Taxonomy and Molecular Signatures

As of 2021, ''Halococcaceae'' contains a single validly published genus, ''

''. This family can be molecularly distinguished from other Halobacteria by the presence of 23 conserved signature proteins (CSPs) and nine

conserved signature indels Conserved signature inserts and deletions (CSIs) in protein sequences provide an important category of molecular markers for understanding phylogenetic relationships. CSIs, brought about by rare genetic changes, provide useful phylogenetic markers ...

(CSIs) present in the following proteins:

DNA gyrase DNA gyrase, or simply gyrase, is an enzyme Enzymes () are proteins that act as biological catalysts by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrat ...

subunit B,

chaperone protein In molecular biology, molecular chaperones are proteins that assist the conformational folding or unfolding of large proteins or macromolecular protein complexes. There are a number of classes of molecular chaperones, all of which function to assi ...

DnaK, HAD-superfamily hydrolase,

glycosyltransferase Glycosyltransferases (GTFs, Gtfs) are enzymes ( EC 2.4) that establish natural glycosidic linkages. They catalyze the transfer of saccharide moieties from an activated nucleotide sugar (also known as the "glycosyl donor") to a nucleophilic glycos ...

, 2-Succinyl-6-hydroxy-2,4-cyclohexadiene-1-carboxylate synthase, iron-regulated ABC transporter,

glycine dehydrogenase In enzymology, a glycine dehydrogenase () is an enzyme that catalysis, catalyzes the chemical reaction :glycine + H2O + NAD+ \rightleftharpoons glyoxylate + NH3 + NADH + H+ The 3 substrate (biochemistry), substrates of this enzyme are glycine, wa ...

subunit 2,

GMP synthase Guanosine monophosphate synthetase, () also known as GMPS is an enzyme that converts xanthosine monophosphate to guanosine monophosphate. In the de novo synthesis of purine nucleotides, IMP is the branch point metabolite at which point the pathw ...

and a hypothetical protein.

References

Halobacteria Taxa described in 2016 Monotypic archaea taxa {{Archaea-stub