Prodigiosin

Abstract

Prodigiosin (C20H25N3O) is the characteristic red, water-insoluble pigment of the bacterium,Serratia marcescens. The name derives from Kraft (1902), who extracted red ``prodigiosine'' from Bacillus prodigiosus. Lewis and Corpe (1964) reported production of prodigiosin by two unidentified marine bacteria, and several investigators have reported prodigiosin-like pigments in members of the order Actinomycetales (Dietzel, 1948, 1949; Arcamoneet al., 1957; Wassermanet al., 1960a; Perry, 1961; and Khokhlova, Puchnina and Artamova, 1964). Thus, production of prodigiosin or of prodigiosin-like pigments occurs in other microorganisms and is not unique to members of the genus Serratia. Synonyms for S. marcescens appearing in the literature include Bacillus prodigiosus, Bacterium prodigiosum, Chromobacterium prodigiosum and Micrococcus prodigiosus.