This document discusses pigmented bacteria and their potential applications. It introduces different types of pigments produced by bacteria, such as carotenoids, prodigiosin, and melanin. Carotenoids provide protection from UV radiation and low temperatures. Prodigiosin is light-sensitive and produced by various bacteria. Melanin is formed from polymerized phenolic compounds. The document also outlines applications for bacterial pigments, including use as antimicrobials, anticancer agents, and antioxidants. In conclusion, further study of novel pigment-producing bacteria could lead to new biotechnological applications in medicine, pharmaceuticals, and natural products.

1. A SEMINAR REPORT ON
PIGMENTED BACTERIA
BY
OBAFEMI SUSAN TOLUWANI
19/57MB/01182

2. OUTLINE
• INTRODUCTION
• PIGMENT PRODUCING BACTERIA
• Types of bacterial pigment
• APPLICATION OF PIGMENTED BACTERIA
• CONCLUSION
• RECOMMENDATION
• REFERENCE

3. INTRODUCTION
• Pigment producing bacteria are ubiquitous not only in marine and different soil environments but
can also be found in extreme environments such as the desert sands and salt regions (Franks et al.,
2020).
• Moreover, pigments producing bacteria were also reported to be isolated from organic residues
spoiled fruits and vegetables, damping site and industrial effluent, endophytes and dried seafood
(Boontosaeng et al., 2016).
•

4. PIGMENT PRODUCING BACTERIA
• Some bacteria that can produce pigments in high yields include the strain of
Achromobacter, Serratia, Sarcina, Thialkalivibrio and Bacillus sp.
• However, most of the pigment producing bacteria are actinobacteria, which
includes the genus of Streptomyces, Nocardia, Micromonospora,
Thermomonospora, Actinoplanes, Microbispora, Streptosporangium,
Actinomadura, Rhodococcus, and Kitasatospora (Franks et al., 2020).

5. Types of bacterial pigment
Carotenoids
• Carotenoids are one of the main natural pigments found widely in plant and microorganisms. These
pigments are lipid soluble, occurs in yellow-orange-red color and belongs to the isoprenoid
polyenes (Frengova and Beshkova, 2019).
• In bacteria, carotenoid may play a role in the modulation of membrane fluidity to survive under
low temperature conditions. Carotenoid also provides protection to bacterial cells by absorbing or
screening UV radiation (Rodríguez et al., 2020).

6. Types of bacterial pigment
Prodigiosin
• Prodigiosin is a linear tripyrrole and a red pigment secondary metabolite (Tarangini and Mishra, 2018).
• It is sensitive to light and insoluble in water, but soluble in alcohol and ether such as methanol,
chloroform and acetonitrile. In nature, prodigiosin is produced only in the later stages of bacterial
growth (Harris et al., 2019).
• Prodigiosin is produced in Gram negative bacteria such as Pseudomonas magnesiorubra, Serratia
rubidaea, Alteromonas rubra, Vibrio gazogenes, Zooshikella rubidus, and Hahella chejuensis.
• Some actinobacteria producing prodigiosin include Streptomyces griseoviridi, Streptomyces sp. JS520,
and Streptoverticillium rubrireticuli (Tarangini and Mishra, 2018).

7. Types of bacterial pigment
Melanin
• Melanin are dark colored natural pigments, formed due to polymerized phenolic and/or indolic
compounds (Tarangini and Mishra, 2018).
• Research on melanin producing bacteria has been reported and some examples include Vibrio
cholerae and Shewanella colwelliana, where they produce pyomelanin due to the catabolism of
tyrosine via the tyrosine degradation pathway (Tarangini and Mishra, 2018).

8. APPLICATION OF PIGMENTED
BACTERIA
• Bacterial pigments as antimicrobial agents
The Holomonas sp. producing carotenoids had been reported to demonstrate antimicrobial activities
against antibiotic resistant Klebsiella sp., S. aureus and P. aeruginosa, and ophthalmic Escherichia coli, S.
aureus and Streptococcus pyogens (Mohana et al., 2019).
• Bacterial pigments as anticancer agents
• The first report on the novel red pigment produced by Anthrobacter sp. G20 isolated from the Caspian
Sea had showed anticancer effects on oesophageal cancer cell line (KYSE30) (Sikkandar et al., 2018).

9. APPLICATION OF PIGMENTED
BACTERIA
Bacterial pigments as antioxidants
• Several studies have showed carotenoids extracted from bacteria such as Kocuira marina DAGII,
thermophillic bacteria Meiothermus and Thermus strains exhibiting potent antioxidant activities.
• Similarly, the carotenoids from an Antarctic bacterium Pedobacter possessed strong antioxidant
capacity and protects against oxidative damage.
• Another study had revealed that staphyloxanthin can protect S. aureus itself against oxidative stress
(Correa et al., 2018).

10. CONCLUSION
• In conclusion, it is expected that the study and prospecting of new varieties of
bacteria pigments will lead to new biotechnological applications, either in the
development of new treatments, the production of new drugs, or in the
implementation of a new range of natural products harmless to humans.

11. RECOMMENDATION
• Accordingly, it becomes imperative and highly relevant to promote the
study and search for new natural bacterial pigment-producing strains
as well as to expand studies of the pigments previously described to
clarify possible biological activities that have not yet been described.

12. REFERENCES
• Boontosaeng, T., Nimrat, S. and Vuthiphandchai V. (2016) Pigment production of bacteria isolated from dried seafood and capability to inhibit microbial pathogens.
IOSR Journal of Environmental Science, Toxicology and Food Technology, 10:30–34.
• Correa-Llantén, D.N., Amenabar, M.J. and Blamey, J.M. (2018) Antioxidant capacity of novel pigments from an Antarctic bacterium. The Journal of Microbiology,
50:374–379.
• Foo, J. and Michor, F. (2018) Evolution of acquired resistance to anti-cancer therapy. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 355:10-20.
• Franks, A., Haywood, P., Holmström, C., Egan, S., Kjelleberg, S. and Kumar, N. (2020) Isolation and structure elucidation of a novel yellow pigment from marine
bacterium Pseudoalteromonas tunicata. Molecules, 10:1286–1291.
• Frengova, G. and Beshkova, D.J. (2019) Carotenoids from Rhodotorula and Phaffia: yeasts of biotechnological importance. Journal of Industrial Microbiology &
Biotechnology, 36:163–180
• Harris, A.K., Williamson, N.R., Slater, H., Cox, A., Abbasi, S., Foulds, I., Simonsen, H.T., Leeper, F.J. a and Salmond, G.P. (2019) The Serratia gene cluster
encoding biosynthesis of the red antibiotic, prodigiosin, shows species- and strain-dependent genome context variation. Microbiology, 150 (11):3547–3560.
• Mohana, D.C., Thippeswamy, S. and Abishek, R.U. (2019) Antioxidant, antibacterial, and ultraviolet-protective properties of carotenoids isolated from Micrococcus
spp. Radiation Protection and Environment, 36:168–174.
• Rodríguez-Sáiz, M., de la Fuente, J.L. and Barredo, J.L. (2020) Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous for the industrial production of astaxanthin. Applied Microbiology
and Biotechnology, 88:645–658
• Sikkandar, S., Murugan, K., Al-Sohaibani, S., Rayappan, F., Nair, A. and Tilton, F. (2018) Halophilic bacteria-A potent source of carotenoids with antioxidant and
anticancer potentials. Journal of Pure and Applied Microbiology, 7:2825–2830.
• Tarangini, K. and Mishra, S. (2018) Production of melanin by soil microbial isolate on fruit waste extract: two step optimizations of key parameters. Biotechnology
Reports, 4:139–146.

13. THANK YOU