Prodigiosin
Prodigiosin is a blood-red coloured molecule that has antimicrobial,
chemotherapeutic and immunological suppressive properties through a
variety of mechanisms, including decoupling H/Cl-transporters,
regulating cell pH, and cleaving DNA in the presence of copper
(Velmurugan et al., 2020). It is a red pigment identified fromSerratia, Pseudomonas and Streptomyces that is a secondary
metabolite alkaloid and it possesses a unique tripyrrole chemical
structure. Prodigiosin is a non-diffusible red pigment produced by the
enzymatic condensation of 2-methyl-3-amylpyrrole with 4-methoxy-2,
2-’-bipyrrole-5-carboxyaldehyde, resulting in the tripyrrole derivative
2-methyl-3-amyl-6methoxyprodigiosene (Ahmed et al., 2021). Prodigiosin
is also soluble in chloroform, methanol, acetonitrile and DMSO; it is
moderately soluble in alcohol and ether. S. marcescens is a
gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterium that belongs to theEnterobacteriaceae family and is known for its capacity to
produce red pigment prodigiosin (J. Zhao et al., 2019).
Prodigiosin was also toxigenic to chick embryos and demonstrated
cytotoxic activity via oxidative DNA breakage, which was particularly
effective against melanoma and liver cancer cells. Apoptosis was also
triggered by Prodigiosin in human haematological cancer cell lines, such
as acute T-cell leukaemia, promyelocytic leukaemia, myeloma, Burkitt
lymphoma cells, and B-and T-cells from B-cell chronic lymphocytic
leukaemia (Sakai-Kawada et al., 2019). Temperature influences
prodigiosin formation in S. marcescens, with temperatures above 37°C
significantly suppressing it. Traditional media for S. marcescensstrains’ production of prodigiosin are complex media with a wide range
of nutrients. Certain nutrients, such as thiamine and ferric acid, are
essential for prodigiosin formation, whereas phosphate, adenosine
triphosphate, and ribose hinder prodigiosin production. The textile
business is one of the world’s fastest-growing industries. Using
statistical models such as Response Surface Methodology and
Plackett-Burman Design, it accounts for 14 percent of total industrial
production in India and roughly 30 percent of total exports that have
the potential to be used as a dye in the textile sector (Krishna et al.,
2011). The pigment exhibits antifungal, antibacterial, algicidal,
antiprotozoal, antimalarial, immunosuppressive, and anticancer
properties, but its significance in the physiology of generating strains
is unknown. The antimicrobial activity of purified Prodigiosin isolated
from Serratia sp. PDGS120915 against Bacillus cereus,
Bacillus subtilis, Listeria monocytogenes, Enterococcus faecalis,
Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Escherichia coli,
Salmonella typhimurium and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Poddar et
al., 2021). Inhibition of the Wnt/-catenin signalling pathway and
anticancer action in breast cancer cells, as well as reactivation of p53
family-dependent transcriptional activity in p53-deficient human colon
cancer cells, are both possible effects of prodigiosin (J. Zhao et al.,
2019).