Research Article Characterization of Antibiotic Producing Rare Actinomycete Nonomuraea sp. JAJ18 Derived from an Indian Coastal Solar Saltern Polpass Arul Jose, Kunjukrishnan Kamalakshi Sivakala, Pandiyan Rajeswari, and Solomon Robinson David Jebakumar Department of Molecular Microbiology, School of Biotechnology, Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai 625 021, India Correspondence should be addressed to Solomon Robinson David Jebakumar; jsolomon mrna@yahoo.com Received 31 July 2014; Revised 10 November 2014; Accepted 28 November 2014; Published 18 December 2014 Academic Editor: Wen-Jun Li Copyright © 2014 Polpass Arul Jose 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. Rare actinomycete genera are accepted as a promising source of novel metabolites having pharmaceutical importance. One such genus of rare actinomycete is Nonomuraea. Te present study was aimed at characterizing the antibiotic producing Nonomuraea strain JAJ18 which was previously isolated from coastal solar saltern. Strain JAJ18 was recognized as a member of genus Nonomuraea based on its almost complete 16S rRNA gene sequence and phenotypic characteristics. Te strain JAJ18 was found to be closely related to Nonomuraea maheshkhaliensis 16-5-14 T (98.90%), Nonomuraea candida HMC10 T (98.58%), and Nonomuraea jabiensis A4036 T (98.43%). From cell-free culture broth of strain JAJ18, an antibiotic was extracted and purifed by silica column chromatography. Te obtained antibiotic was found to be active against a range of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria including drug-resistant Staphylococcus, with minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) ranging from 0.5 to 16.0 g mL −1 . Te structural characteristics of antibiotic were determined by FTIR and NMR spectroscopy. Te antibiotic was identifed to be an aliphatic rich compound with signifcant dissimilarity to known antibiotics reported from members of the genus, Nonomuraea. As the trends to discover novel metabolites from Nonomuraea are vibrant, further studies are needed to understand the structural and biotechnological signifcance of antibiotic compound produced by Nonomuraea sp. JAJ18. 1. Introduction Enduring infectious diseases and rapidly mounting antibiotic resistance have intensifed the search for new antibiotics in order to maintain a pool of efective antibiotics against the pathogenic microorganisms. In recent years, rare acti- nomycetes are considered as potential producers of novel bioactive compounds [1, 2]. Te rare actinomycetes that are ofen very difcult to isolate and cultivate might represent a unique source of novel biologically active compounds [3]. Some genera of this group are Actinomadura, Actino- alloteichus, Actinoplanes, Amycolatopsis, Actinokineospora, Acrocarpospora, Actinosynnema, Catenuloplanes, Cryptospo -rangium, Dactylosporangium, Kibdelosporangium, Kineospo- ria, Kutzneria, Microbispora, Microtetraspora, Nocardia, Non- omuraea, Planomonospora, Planobispora, Pseudonocardia, Saccharomonospora, Saccharopolyspora, Saccharothrix, Sali- nispora, Streptosporangium, Spirilliplanes, Termomonospora, Termobifda, and Virgosporangium [4]. Nonomuraea is less known among the rare actinomycete genera as its taxonomic position was revised several times [5]. Te genus Nonomuraea was originally proposed by Zhang et al. [6] as a member of the family Streptosporangiaceae which forms extensively branched substrate and aerial myce- lia. On the basis of detailed polyphasic taxonomical analy- sis, the genus currently (November 2014) comprises around 36 species and 2 subspecies (http://www.bacterio.net/nono- muraea.html#maheshkhaliensis). Te members of this genus have been isolated from various soil and plant samples includ- ing mangrove rhizosphere mud [7], cave soil [8], arid soil [9], acidic soil [10], coastal sediments [11], and medicinal plants [12]. Members of genus Nonomuraea have been recognized Hindawi Publishing Corporation e Scientific World Journal Volume 2014, Article ID 456070, 7 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/456070