Is halophile an extremophile?

What is another name for halophile?

Halophile is one possible term, but not all halophiles are considered to be "true" halophiles because not all halophiles live in salt-saturated conditions.

For example, the genus Halorubrum grows under very high salinity conditions and is called halotolerant as opposed to halophilic. Wikipedia has a section for "halo-halophile", in which it says: Halophile is a term that may be applied to organisms that can grow in salt or saline environments. Halo-halophiles are those that grow at least one half of their energy from atmospheric oxygen. The term halophilic is used when the source of the water is extremely saline; "halotolerant" is used to indicate an organism that requires growth to less than half the salinity of its habitat. The definition depends on whether or not the organism's metabolic processes take place in the presence of oxygen or in the absence of oxygen (or in other words, is it aerobic or anaerobic). The ability tolerate high salt concentrations is an adaptation for life in salty habitats.

Are halophiles also called archaebacteria?

I have always considered halophiles as archaebacteria, but that seems to be an outdated definition.

The question I would like to ask is: Is it still correct to call halophiles as archaebacteria? Halophiles are Archaea (archaea) with a strong salt tolerance. They have adapted to living in extremely salty environments.

See the Wikipedia article for more details: Halophiles are generally classified as Archaebacteria. You are correct in that Halobacteria are not Archaebacteria (for the reasons you cite) and they are not Halophiles. Halophiles are Archaea that have adapted to live in salty environments.

What is the scientific name of Halobacterium?

Is there a scientific name for Halobacterium?

It's not a bacterium, and it's not a Halomonas; it's a genus of archaea. However, some scientists use the name Halobacterium for all members of the genus because of the historical precedent of using the "Hal" prefix for all archaeal genera (eg, Halorhabdus, Halorubrum, Halococcus, etc.). Other names for the organism include Natronobacterium, Natronomonas, Natronobacterium halophilum genomidum, Natronobacterium halophilum genomidum sp. Nov., Natronobacterium halophilum haloarchaeum, and Natronobacterium halophilum haloarchaeum genomidum.

In general, many microbiologists now prefer to use the more inclusive genus name, Natronobacterium, but N. Halophilum still exists as a valid species within that genus.

Is the name Natronobacterium halophilum a valid species? As a rule, species names should be Latinized from the original scientific name of the organism. That is, if you were to say Natronobacterium halophilum today, you would be saying what used to be called Natronobacterium halophilum. The official scientific name of this organism is Natronobacterium halophilum. However, it is also possible to use the alternative name Natronobacterium halophilum genomidum as a nomen nudum (in other words, a name that has not yet been formally published and thus cannot be used in publications or databases).

Who discovered and named this microorganism? The first description of Halobacterium was by a Swedish physician, Hans von Holt. At the time, Holt described the novel organism as "A new type of living agent that lives in the sea and is associated with Natron" (ie, Natron is the salt in which the bacterium lives). Holt named the organism Halobacterium which literally means "Halo" meaning "Sun" and "Bacterium" meaning "Bacteria.