ISSN 0031-0301, Paleontological Journal, 2013, Vol. 47, No. 9, pp. 1089–1092. © Pleiades Publishing, Ltd., 2013. 1089 INTRODUCTION Mars and Europe are priority places of search for life in the Solar System. Microorganisms can be trans- ported from the Earth to Mars by meteoroids formed as a result of collision of relatively large space bodies with the Earth and during the study of Mars with space-qualified hardware. To study the survival of Earth microorganisms on Mars it is necessary to choose organisms living in conditions resembling that on Mars. For this purpose, halophiles are one of the most suitable groups of microorganisms, since saline liquids are more widespread under the Martian surface than pure liquid water. For example, Litchfield (1998) considered the presence of salt solutions, which can provide suitable environments for organisms similar to halophilic archaea. The study of survival of halophilic archaea in conditions of microgravity, simulating flight of microorganisms from the Earth to Mars, was performed by Dornmayr-Pfaffenhuemer et al. (2005). It was also shown that halophilic microorganisms sur- vive in the Martian atmosphere at 50°–80°C (Leuko et al., 2002). The study of the chemical composition of Martian regolith has revealed high concentration of chlorine (Taylor et al., 2010), perchlorates, and sul- fates (Kounaves et al., 2010). Modeling conditions of the Martian surface has revealed the possibility of existence of salt liquids with high concentration of the ions N a + , K + , Mg 2+ , Fe 2+ , Cl – , and (Tosca et al., 2011). The wide distribution of halites in the Solar System suggests that halophilic microorganisms are the most probable model for the study of life outside of our SO 2 4 - planet. Halophiles are interesting in regard to the abil- ity to survive in environments with high concentration of salts and absence of water. Some Earth halophiles have shown the capability for growing at low tempera- tures down to –1°C (Reid et al., 2006). Extremely halophilic microorganisms occur in various areas of our planet, including salt-containing mountain rocks dated 200–250 Ma (Mancinelli et al., 2004), salt sur- face waters, such as leach in salterns, the Dead Sea, Lake Magadi, and other salt lakes in various arid zones of our planet (Oren, 2002). In particular, in the Kulunda Steppe (Altai region), with many small drainless lakes characterized by high concentration of salt, up to saturation, extremely halophilic bacteria and archaea have been recorded (Sorokin et al., 2005; Bryanskaya, 2010). The purpose of the present study is to investigate adaptive abilities of bacterial and archaeal strains of salt lakes of the Altai region under extreme conditions simulating early Martian conditions (low tempera- tures, salt liquids with high concentration of NaCl, MgSO 4 , Na 2 SO 4 , and NaClO 4 ). MATERIAL AND METHODS Sampling Points and Cultivation Conditions of Microorganisms The strains of bacteria (Halomonas sp. H8a, Halomonas sp. H12a, Salicola sp. H9a) and archaea (Halorubrum sp. H2b, Halorubrum sp. H3b, Haloru- brum sp. H4b, Halorubrum sp. H7b, Halorubrum sp. H11b, Halorubrum sp. H13b) were sampled in various Adaptive Capabilities of Microorganisms of Salt Lakes of the Altai Region under Conditions of Early Mars A. V. Bryanskaya a , A. A. Berezhnoy b , A. S. Rozanov a , S. E. Peltek a , and A. K. Pavlov c a Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, pr. Lavrent’eva 10, Novosibirsk, 630090 Russia b Sternberg Astronomical Institute, Moscow State University, Universitetskii pr. 13, Moscow, 119991 Russia c Ioffe Physicotechnical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Politekhnicheskaya ul. 26, St. Petersburg, 194021 Russia e-mail: bal412003@mail.ru Received August 28, 2012 Abstract—Adaptive capacity of bacteria and archaea from salt lakes of the Altai Region are discussed. It is established that halophilic archaea (genus Halorubrum) and halotolerant bacteria (genus Halomonas) grow in a wide range of pH and mineralization (in the presence of Cl – , Mg 2+ ) and survive at low tem- peratures with a minor decrease in viability. Keywords: bacteria, archaea, adaptive capabilities, Altai region DOI: 10.1134/S0031030113090050 SO 2 4 , - ClO 4 , -