During isolation of soil bacteria having antibacterial functions, an aerobic, Gram-stain-positive, oxidase-negative, catalase-positive bacterium, designated strain R434T, was isolated. Strain R434T showed antimicrobial activity against Propionibacterium acnes and Staphylococcus epidermidis and significant enzyme-inhibitory capability. The diagnostic diamino acid of the cell-wall peptidoglycan was meso-diaminopimelic acid, and the whole-cell sugars were galactose, arabinose and glucose. Phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence revealed that strain R434T formed a lineage within the family Pseudonocardiaceae. Strain R434T showed highest sequence similarity with type strains of the genus Actinokineospora, including Actinokineospora guangxiensis Gk-6T (99.4 % sequence similarity), Actinokineospora soli YIM 75948T (98.5 %), Actinokineospora fastidiosa IMSNU 20054T (98.0 %), Actinokineospora cibodasensis ID03-0784T (97.9 %), Actinokineospora terrae IFO 15668T (97.6 %) and Actinokineospora auranticolor IFO 16518T (97.4 %). The predominant respiratory quinone of strain R434T was MK-9(H4). The major polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, hydroxyphosphatidylethanolamine and unidentified glycolipid. The major cellular fatty acids were iso-C16 : 0, iso-C16 : 1 H and C17 : 1ω6c. The DNA G+C content of strain R434T was 71.6 mol%. On the basis of phenotypic, genotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic analysis, strain R434T represents a novel species of the genus Actinokineospora, for which the name Actinokineospora acnipugnans sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of 'Actinokineospora acnipugnans' is R434T (=KEMB 9005-403T=KACC 18904T=JCM 31557T).