Hypersaline environments are globally relevant since hypersaline waters account for around a half of the total inland waters. Some of these environments also provide relevant ecosystem services and economic benefits, as is the case of coastal solar salterns, which have also been used as models for the study of halophilic microorganisms in their natural environments.

Hypersaline systems harbour a rich community of microorganisms and their viruses, which present unique biochemical and genetic adaptations and cellular characteristics. Furthermore, many hypersaline systems are dominated by Archaea and present the highest concentration of virus-like particles reported so far. Among the halophilic microbes, the recent discovery of the nanohaloarchaea is emerging as a new paradigm of archaeal symbiosis.

Some high salt settings are among the harshest habitats in the planet, either by displaying different types of extreme conditions, such as the acidic hypersaline lakes, or by their extremely low water activity and the chaotropic nature of their salts. High salt environments have also been proposed as analogues for exploring extraterrestrial life and are a source of compounds of biotechnological interest.

The area of Alicante is an excellent scenario for the study of halophiles since it harbors many inland and coastal salterns, which are among the best studied in the world.  Indeed, it was studying an archaeon isolated from one of these salterns when Prof. Francis M. Mojica discovered the CRISPR system and proposed its role as a viral immunity mechanism. As it is very well known, this discovery was the basis for the development of a new genomic editing tool, which was the object of the 2020 Nobel Prize to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna (“Genetic scissors: a tool for rewriting the code of life”).