Abstract
Extreme environments harbor a number of microbes producing novel bioactive compounds. The aim of our study is to isolate and identify bioactive compound producing halophiles. Marine soil sediments were collected from the solar saltpans of Thoothukudi District, Tamil Nadu, India. Based on colony morphology, two species were isolated and identification was done by using morphological and biochemical tests. The extracts of cell-free supernatant of the two halophilic isolates were screened for bioactive compound and tested for antimicrobial activity against human pathogenic bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas sp, Klebsiella sp, Vibrio sp, Escherichia coli and fungi Aspergillus niger and Penicillium chrysogenum by the agar cup diffusion method. The results were then compared to standard antibiotics which showed 80% of similar activity in 50 μL/g concentration. In addition, the arbitrary unit of two isolates was calculated against S. aureus which produced enhanced inhibitory results. Hence our finding illustrated that Thoothukudi saltpan might be considered as a resource for novel bioactive compounds. Key words: Halophilic bacteria, bioactive compound, anti-microbial activity, arbitrary unit, Thoothukudi saltpan.  
Highlights
The Earth’s surface consists of 70% water, which is inhabited by 80% of all life forms with greater diversity and marine environment can be described or characterized as a number of different scales, ranging from ocean-level processes which occur at species and genetic level (Bruckner, 2002; Connor et al, 2002).Marine soil has been widely explored as the source of microorganisms, possessing a large number of bioactive molecules
The extracts of cell-free supernatant of the two halophilic isolates were screened for bioactive compound and tested for antimicrobial activity against human pathogenic bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas sp, Klebsiella sp, Vibrio sp, Escherichia coli and fungi Aspergillus niger and Penicillium chrysogenum by the agar cup diffusion method
The present study has investigated the halophilic bacteria for their bioactive secondary metabolites
Summary
The Earth’s surface consists of 70% water, which is inhabited by 80% of all life forms with greater diversity and marine environment can be described or characterized as a number of different scales, ranging from ocean-level processes which occur at species and genetic level (Bruckner, 2002; Connor et al, 2002).Marine soil has been widely explored as the source of microorganisms, possessing a large number of bioactive molecules. Halophiles are a group of microorganisms that live in saline environments and are economically important because it produces several bioactive compounds which are useful for many pharmaceutical industries (Ghosh et al, 2010). Significant progress has been achieved in this field, and investigations of bioactive compounds produced by the marine species are rapidly increasing (Dennis and Shimmin, 1997; Wagner et al, 2002). Marine microorganisms have become important in the study of novel microbial products exhibiting antibacterial, antiviral, antitumor as well as anti-coagulant and cardioactive properties. Thousands of marine bacilli are known to contain antibiotic substance and less than 1% has been examined for their pharmaceutical activity. It was proved that Halophilic bacteria have a potent activity for the production of antimicrobial compounds and their antimicrobial spectrum against pathogenic microorganisms differ
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