| The bacterium Rhodococcus is a potential source for novel antimicrobial metabolites. Recently, the Rhodococcus strain MTM3W5.2 was isolated from a soil sample collected from Morristown, East Tennessee and was found to produce an inhibitor molecule that is active against similar Rhodococcus species. The aim of this research is to extract, purify, and characterize the active compound. The compound was obtained from both agar and broth cultures of strain MTM3W5.2 and purified by primary fractionation of crude extract on a Sephadex LH-20 column, followed by semi-preparative reversed phase column chromatography. Final purification was achieved using multiple rounds of an analytical C18 HPLC column. Based on the results obtained from UV-Vis, FT-IR, and HR-MS, the molecule is a polyketide with a molecular formula of C52H78O 13 and an exact mass of 911.5490 amu. The partial structure of this compound has been determined using 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy. |
