A large number of Gram-negative, motile, mesophilic, violacein-producing bacteria were isolated from the soils and roots of Vaccinium macrocarpon Ait. and Kalmia angustifolia L. plants and from irrigation ponds associated with wild and cultivated cranberry bogs in Massachusetts, USA. Phylogenetic analyses of 16S rRNA gene sequences placed these isolates in a clade with Chromobacterium species, ...

Quorum sensing (QS) is a process mediated via small molecules termed autoinducers (AI) that allow bacteria to respond and adjust according to the cell population density by altering the expression of multitudinous genes. Since QS governs numerous bioprocesses in bacteria, including virulence, its inhibition promises to be an ideal target for the development of novel therapeutics. We found that ...

The enzyme omega-transaminase catalyses the conversion of chiral omega-amines to ketones. The recombinant enzyme from Chromobacterium violaceum has been purified to homogeneity. The enzyme was crystallized from PEG 4000 using the microbatch method. Data were collected to 1.7 A resolution from a crystal belonging to the triclinic space group P1, with unit-cell parameters a = 58.9, b = 61.9, c = ...

Although ketoheptose sugars are known to occur in Nature both free (La Forge, 1916-17; La Forge & Hudson, 1917) and in phosphorylated form (Robison, Macfarlane & Tazelaar, 1938; Benson, Bassham & Calvin, 1951; Horecker & Smyrniotis, 1952; Buchanan, 1953), it is only in very recent years that aldoheptose sugars have been detected in natural products. The aldoheptoses have been found, up to the p...

A new meroditerpene sartorenol (1), a new natural product takakiamide (2) and a new tryptoquivaline analog (3) were isolated, together with nine known compounds, including aszonapyrone A, chevalone B, aszonalenin, acetylaszonalenin, 3'-(4-oxoquinazolin-3-yl) spiro[1H-indole-3,5'-oxolane]-2,2'-dione, tryptoquivalines L, F and H, and the isocoumarin derivative, 6-hydroxymellein, from the ethyl ac...

Punicalagin, an essential component of pomegranate rind, has been demonstrated to possess antimicrobial activity against several food-borne pathogens, but its activity on the virulence of pathogens and its anti-quorum-sensing (anti-QS) potential have been rarely reported. This study investigated the efficacy of subinhibitory concentrations of punicalagin on Salmonella virulence factors and QS s...

Chromobacterium violaceum produces tryptophan metabolites, purple pigments of violacein and deoxyviolacein. A blocked mutant was prepared with N-methyl-N'-nitrosoguanidine to gain insights into the biosynthetic mechanisms of the pigments. Five tryptophan metabolites were isolated: three novel compounds, named chromoazepinone A, B and C and two known compounds, chromopyrrolic acid and arcyriarub...

We studied the role of bacterial secondary metabolites in the context of grazing protection against protozoans. A model system was used to examine the impact of violacein-producing bacteria on feeding rates, growth, and survival of three common bacterivorous nanoflagellates. Freshwater isolates of Janthinobacterium lividum and Chromobacterium violaceum produced the purple pigment violacein and ...