Research Article Screening for Genes Coding for Putative Antitumor Compounds, Antimicrobial and Enzymatic Activities from Haloalkalitolerant and Haloalkaliphilic Bacteria Strains of Algerian Sahara Soils Okba Selama, 1 Gregory C. A. Amos, 2 Zahia Djenane, 1 Chiara Borsetto, 2 Rabah Forar Laidi, 3 David Porter, 2 Farida Nateche, 1 Elizabeth M. H. Wellington, 2 and Hocine Hacène 1 1 Microbiology Group, Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, USTHB, BP 32, EL ALIA, Bab Ezzouar, Algiers, Algeria 2 School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK 3 Department de Biologie, Ecole Normale Superieure (ENS), Vieux Kouba, Alger, Algeria Correspondence should be addressed to Hocine Hac` ene; h hacene@yahoo.fr Received 26 February 2014; Revised 13 April 2014; Accepted 6 May 2014; Published 27 May 2014 Academic Editor: Ameur Cherif Copyright © 2014 Okba Selama et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Extreme environments may ofen contain unusual bacterial groups whose physiology is distinct from those of normal environments. To satisfy the need for new bioactive pharmaceuticals compounds and enzymes, we report here the isolation of novel bacteria from an extreme environment. Tirteen selected haloalkalitolerant and haloalkaliphilic bacteria were isolated from Algerian Sahara Desert soils. Tese isolates were screened for the presence of genes coding for putative antitumor compounds using PCR based methods. Enzymatic, antibacterial, and antifungal activities were determined by using cultural dependant methods. Several of these isolates are typical of desert and alkaline saline soils, but, in addition, we report for the frst time the presence ofa potential new member of the genus Nocardia with particular activity against the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In addition to their haloalkali character, the presence of genes coding for putative antitumor compounds, combined with the antimicrobial activity against a broad range of indicator strains and their enzymatic potential, makes them suitable for biotechnology applications. 1. Introduction Tere is an increasingly urgent need for new active biomole- cules and enzymes for use in industry and therapy [1]. However, the rate of discovery of new useful compounds has been in decline [2, 3] and because of this there is an interest in investigating previously unexplored ecological niches [4, 5], particularly extreme environments. Tese environments have provided a useful source of novel biologically active com- pounds in recent years [1, 6, 7]. Extreme environments are distributed worldwide. Tese ecosystems were thought to be lifeless as insurmountable extreme physical and chemical barriers to life exhibit. With the advancement of our knowledge, we now see them as yet another niche harbouring “extremophiles” [8]; major catego- ries of extremophiles include halophiles, thermophiles, aci- dophiles, alkaliphiles, and haloalkaliphiles [6, 9]. Te haloalkaliphiles bacteria have attracted a great deal of attention from researchers in this last decade [9]. In 1982, the term haloalkaliphile was used for the frst time to describe bacteria that are both halophilic and alkaliphilic [10]. Tis group of bacteria is able to grow optimally or very well at pH values at or above 10 along with high salinity (up to 25% (w/v) NaCl) [11]. To encounter such harsh conditions, haloalkaliphilic microorganisms have found various physiological strategies to sustain their cell structure and function [12, 13]. Tese bacteria have widely been identifed and studied from the Hindawi Publishing Corporation BioMed Research International Volume 2014, Article ID 317524, 11 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/317524