Effect of Some Antibiotics on Pigmentation in Serratia marcescens

• Published in: Zentralblatt für Bakteriologie Vol. 289; no. 8; pp. 781 - 785
• Main Authors: Anǧ-Küçüker, Mine, Büyükbaba-Boral, Özden, Tolun, Venüs, Törümküney, Didem, Susever, Serdar, Anǧ, Özdem
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Germany 2000
• Subjects: Animals; Anti-Bacterial Agents - pharmacology; antibiotics; cefoxitin; co-trimoxazole; erythromycin; imipenem; Keratitis - microbiology; Keratitis - pathology; Lethal Dose 50; Mice; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Microbial Sensitivity Tests; nitrofurantoin; Pigmentation - drug effects; prodigiosin; Prodigiosin - biosynthesis; Serratia Infections - microbiology; Serratia marcescens; Serratia marcescens - drug effects; Serratia marcescens - metabolism; Serratia marcescens - pathogenicity; tobramycin; Virulence
• ISSN: 0934-8840
• DOI: 10.1016/S0934-8840(00)80001-8

Serratia marcescens is characterized by its ability to produce a red pigment called prodigiosin. It is well known that there are some substances affecting pigmentation in bacteria. Cefoxitin, erythromycin, tobramycin, co-trimoxazole, imipenem and nitrofurantoin were found to have an inhibitory effect on pigmentation in a
S. marcescens strain isolated from urine. It was also shown that the LD
50 dose determined by inoculation of eight-week-old BALE/c mice with serial dilutions of overnight cultures of pigmented and nonpigmented variants was lower (LD
50 = 300 × 10
3.94) in the nonpigmented variant than in the pigmented one (LD
50 = 300 × 10
5.58). In addition, the Sereny test showed that in contrast to the pigmented variant, the nonpigmented variant caused keratitis in guinea pig eye.