Prodigiosin is a heterocyclic bacterial secondary metabolite belonging to the class of tripyrrole compounds, synthesized by various types of bacteria including Serratia species. Prodigiosin has been the subject of intense research over the last decade for its ability to induce apoptosis in several cancer cell lines. Reports suggest that prodigiosin promotes oxidative damage to double-stranded D...

Despite a considerable interest in prodigiosin, the mechanism of its antibacterial activity is still poorly understood. In this work, Escherichia coli cells were treated with prodigiosin to determine its antimicrobial effect on bacterial physiology. The effect of prodigiosin was concentration dependent. In prodigiosin treated cells above MIC value no significant DNA damage or cytoplasmic membra...

Prodigiosin produced by marine bacterium Vibrio ruber DSM 14379 exhibits a potent antimicrobial activity against a broad range of Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria. The mechanism of prodigiosin antimicrobial action, however, is not known. In this work, the effect of prodigiosin on Bacillus subtilis growth, cell membrane leakage, and induction of autolysins was studied. Treating B. subtil...

Application of algicidal compounds secreted by bacteria is a promising and environmentally friendly strategy to control harmful algal blooms (HABs). Years ago prodigiosin was described as an efficient algicidal compound, but the details about the effect of prodigiosin on algal cells are still elusive. Prodigiosin shows high algicidal activity on Phaeocystis globosa, making it a potential algici...

Thiamine stimulates the production of a red pigment, which is chromatographically and spectrophotometrically identical to prodigiosin, by growing cultures of Serratia marcescens mutant 9-3-3. This mutant is blocked in the formation of 2-methyl-3-amylpyrrole (MAP), the monopyrrole moiety of prodigiosin, but accumulates 4-methoxy-2,2,'-bipyrrole-5-carboxaldehyde (MBC) and can couple this compound...

A new strain of Serratia marcescens UCP1459 isolated from a semi-arid soil produced the natural red pigment prodigiosin, characterized by an uncommon pyrrolylpyrromethane skeleton. Prodigiosin is a promising drug due to its reported antifungal, immunosuppressive and anti-proliferative activities. The objective of this work was to indentify a suitable medium to simultaneously enhance S. marcesce...

Prodigiosin 25-C inhibited the proliferation of various cultured cell lines more strongly when concanavalin A (Con A) was added to the cultures. The increase in sensitivity was most evident in T lymphoma YAC-1 cells. The combination of prodigiosin 25-C and Con A induced characteristic morphological changes in these cells. In the presence of Con A, monovalent polyether ionophores and vacuolar ty...

Generation of many useful microbe-derived secondary metabolites, including the red pigment prodigiosin of the bacterium Serratia marcescens, is inhibited by glucose. In a previous report, a genetic approach was used to determine that glucose dehydrogenase activity (GDH) is required for inhibiting prodigiosin production and transcription of the prodigiosin biosynthetic operon (pigA-N). However, ...

Proliferation of concanavalin A (Con A)-activated nylon-wool purified murine splenic T cells was increasingly suppressed by prodigiosin 25-C as higher concentrations of Con A were used for the activation. Enhancement of suppressive effect of prodigiosin 25-C was not observed when T cells were stimulated with phytohemagglutinin (PHA), anti-CD3 antibody, or allogeneic splenic adherent cells. The ...

Gastric cancer is one of the most frequent malignancies and its treatment is far from satisfactory. The challenge to oncologists is the characterization of novel chemical entities with greater effectiveness. Prodigiosin is a red pigment produced by various bacteria including Serratia marcescens. Here we characterize the apoptotic action of prodigiosin in human gastric carcinoma cell line (HGT-1...