[Objective] Marine sediment from Tianjin Port has a extremely high salinity.The bacteria which live in such habitats have evolved distinct physiological,metabolic,and morphological characteristics to survive.The objective of this study is to identify all the specific salt-tolerant characteristics and the genetic evolution of the bacteria in the sediment.[Methods] In this study,the total DNA of sediment from Tianjin Port was extracted,and 16S rDNA was used to conduct an analysis of the fauna of sediment bacteria. We also isolated sediment bacteria using beef extract-peptone media with seven different NaCl concentrations (0,0.5%,2%,5%,10%,15%,and 20%),aiming to analyze the dominant species of halophilous bacteria under different salinities.[Results] 1) With each stepwise increase of salinity from 0.5% to 20%,the total number of isolated bacterial colonies decreased.14 strains of bacteria were identified and classified by the16S rDNA sequencing analysis.Of these,four could tolerate 0~2% salinity,four could tolerate 0~5% salinity,one could tolerate 0~15% salinity,and one tolerated within the full 0~20% salinity range.Further four strains were only able to tolerate within a few narrow salinity ranges.such as 5%~10%,10%~15%,10%~20% and 15%~20%;2) The quantity of bacteria strains that can be isolated from the marine sediment decreased with the increase of salinity. Also, the Shannon wiener index and species richness index of marine sediment bacteria decreased significantly from 5% salinity.However,there were no significant differences in the species evenness index;3) When the salinity was 0~10%,the dominant species was Bacillus.When the salinity was 15%, Halomonas was the dominant species.When the salinity was 20%,there were no significant differences in the proportions of these species.[Conclusion] Our results showed that some bacteria could tolerate living conditions with high salinity,and we even found a species which can tolerate a wide range of salinities (0~20%).In further study,it would be valuable to analyze the
