Prodigiosin, is a natural red pigment produced by various bacteria that firstly
characterized from Serratia marcescens. It is an alkaloid secondary metabolite with
a unique tripyrrol structure.This pigment is a promising drug owing to its reported
characteristics of having antifungal, immunosuppressive and anti-cancer activity. In
this study prodigiosin was produced by Serratia marcescens., which was isolated
from soil identified and characterized by morphology, Gram’s staining, biochemical
and carbohydrate fermentation tested and confirmed by the API 20E test.
From these samples, six isolates of Serratia marcescens( 24) % were obtained out
of 25 soil samples. Ability of these isolates in prodigiosin production was examined
to select the efficient isolate in prodigiosin production.Results showed that all of
these isolates are prodigiosin producers, and among them one isolate was the most
efficient in prodigiosin production.
The apoptotic effect of the pigment was assessed in blood lymphocytes cells by
DNA fragmentation analysis assay collected from anticoagulated human blood ,
prodigiosin at all concentrations were significantly increased the percentage of
fragmented DNA of peripheral blood Lymphocyte cells compared to control. This
study reveals that Prodigiosin has possessed apoptotic property.