Haloarculaceae

Haloarculaceae is a family of halophilic and mostly chemoorganotrophic archaea within the order Halobacteriales. The type genus of this family is Haloarcula. Its biochemical characteristics are the same as the order Halobacteriales.
The name Haloarculaceae is derived from the Latin term Haloarcula, referring to the type genus of the family and the suffix "-ceae," an ending used to denote a family. Together, Haloarculaceae refers to a family whose nomenclatural type is the genus ''Haloarcula.''

Current taxonomy and molecular signatures

As of 2021, Haloarculaceae contains 10 validly published genera. This family can be molecularly distinguished from other Halobacteria by the presence of 19 conserved signature proteins and seven conserved signature indels present in the following proteins: acetylglutamate kinase, ribonuclease R, metallo-beta-lactamase, tRNA modifying enzyme, carbamoyl phosphate synthase large subunit and hypothetical proteins.

Specific genera

''Halocatena''

Halocatena is a genus in this family. One of the species, Halocatena halophila, is known for displaying "hyphae and spores" structure akin to the Actinomycetales. The operon responsible for such structural differentation appears to be homologous to the Streptomycetes one and can compensate for the deletion of the bacterial version.

Phylogeny

The currently accepted taxonomy is based on the List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature and National Center for Biotechnology Information.
Note: * polyphyletic Halobacteriaceae