Adopt A Bacterial Pigment: Serratia Marcescens

Prodigiosin is a red multipurpose pigment and is special because it's known to have antibacterial, antimalarial and antibiotic activity. The pigment is best produced under room temperature conditions.

Prodigiosin is a red pigment produced by Serratia marcescens. Prodigiosin is regarded as a promising drug owing to its reported characteristics of possessing anti-microbial, anti-cancer, and immunosuppressive activity. A factorial design was applied to generate a set of 32 experimental combinations to study the optimal conditions for pigment production using crude glycerol obtained from local biodiesel facility as carbon source for the growth of Serratia marcescens. The maximum production (870 unit/cell) was achieved at 22 °C, at pH 9 with the addition of 1% (w/v) peptone and 109 cell/ml inoculum size after 6 days of incubation. Gamma radiation at dose 200 Gy was capable of doubling the production of the pigment using the optimized conditions and manipulating production temperature. Our results indicate that we have designed an economic medium supporting enhanced Serratia marcescens MN5 prodigiosin production giving an added value for crude glycerol obtained from biodiesel industry.Serratia marcescens is gram-negative bacilli belonging to the family Enterobacteriaceae, which are opportunistic to human, plant and insect. Serratia marcescens has been isolated from soil, water, plants and air. There are two types of Serratia marcescens; pigmented (red) and non pigmented (white) strains. Prodigiosin is a red pigment produced as a secondary metabolite by Serratia marcescens, characterized with unique tripyrrole structure which is regarded as responsible for its reported pharmacological characteristics as anti-cancer, anti-microbial, anti-oxidant and immunosuppressant and it s unique application as a natural based dye for olefins and textiles . Pigmented Serratia marcescens strains have been shown to cause infections in much less frequency than non-pigmented strains, thus reducing the risk of infection during mass production of pigment.

The expansion of industrial biotechnology considerably increased the need to seek overproducing microbial strains for the improvement of the production and obtaining better yield. The successful examples of strain improvement in biotechnology are mostly attributed to the application of mutation and selection technique that results in choosing the best producer strain for the desired product.

Gamma radiations are short wave highly energetic electromagnetic radiations emitted from certain radioactive isotopes such as Cobalt 60. Exposure of microbes to gamma radiation may result in wide effects. Certain mutations to the genes may occur due to single or double strand breakage of DNA, oxidation of bases, structural change of DNA cross linking proteins. The reaction of gamma rays with water inside the cell is the main contributor of those effects due to the resulting reactive oxygen species (ROS) and molecular products like OH− and H2O2. Mutagenic effectiveness of gamma rays has been reported to be higher than the chemical like ethyl methane sulfonate (EMS) due to higher penetration of gamma rays into cells.

Prodigiosin is the red pigment produced by many strains of the bacterium Serratia marcescens, as well as other Gram-negative, gamma proteobacteria such as Vibrio psychroerythrus and Hahella chejuensis. It is responsible for the pink tint occasionally found in grime that accumulates on porcelain surfaces such as bathtubs, sinks, and toilet bowls. It is in the prodiginines family of compounds which are produced in some Gram-negative gamma proteobacteria, as well as select Gram-positive Actinobacteria (e.g. Streptomyces coelicolor).The name prodigiosin is derived from prodigious( something marvelous).The growing demand to fulfill the needs of present-day medicine in terms of novel effective molecules has lead to reexamining some of the old and known bacterial secondary metabolites. Bacterial prodigiosins (prodiginines) have a long history of being re markable multipurpose compounds, best examined for their anticancer and antimalarial activities. Production of prodigiosin in the most common producer strain Serratia marcescens has been described in great detail. However, few reports have discussed the ecophysiological roles of these molecules in the producing strains, as well as their antibiotic and UV-protective properties. This review describes recent advances in the production process, biosynthesis, properties, and applications of bacterial prodigiosins. Special emphasis is put on undecylprodigiosin which has generally been a less studied member of the prodigiosin family. In addition, it has been suggested that proteins involved in undecylprodigiosin synthesis, RedG and RedH, could be a useful addition to the biocatalytic toolbox being able to mediate regio- and stereoselective oxidative cyclization. Judging by the number of recent references (216 for the 2007–2013 period), it has become clear that undecylprodigiosin and other bacterial prodigiosins still hold surprises in terms of valuable properties and applicative potential to medical and other industrial fields and that they still deserve continuing research curiosity.

Since a decade, there has been a strong consumer demand for more natural products. This has augmented inclination towards substitution of synthetic colorants with natural pigments. Natural pigments not only have the capacity to increase the marketability of products, they also demonstrate valuable biological activities as antioxidants and anticancer agents. There is a long history of exploitation of natural products produced by bacteria as sources of pharmaceutically important, bioactive compounds. Among natural pigments, pigments from microbial sources are potentially suitable alternatives to synthetic pigments. The red pigment prodigiosin (PG) has unusual properties, which have long been documented. The red-pigmented prodiginines are bioactive secondary metabolites produced by both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. Prodigiosins are characterized by a common pyrrolyl pyrromethene skeleton, and the biological role of these pigments in the producer organisms remains unclear. Bacterial prodigiosins and their synthetic derivatives are effective proapoptotic agents against various cancer cell lines, with multiple cellular targets including multi-drug resistant cells with little or no toxicity towards normal cell lines. However, research into the biology of pigment production will stimulate interest in the bioengineering of strains to synthesize useful prodiginine derivatives. This review article highlights the characteristics and potential applications of prodigiosin pigment from Serratia as prodigiosins are real potential therapeutic drugs.

Facts about Serratia marcescens!!