Prodigiosin Synthesis in Mutants of Serratia marcesens

Abstract

Morrison , D. A. (Harvard College, Cambridge, Mass.). Prodigiosin synthesis in mutants of Serratia marcescens . J. Bacteriol. 91: 1509–1604. 1966.—Exchange of biosynthetic intermediates through the culture medium was used to characterize several hundred new color mutants of Serratia marcescens . The general scheme of prodigiosin synthesis as a bifurcated pathway, in which monopyrrole and bipyrrole precursors are synthesized separately and then coupled to form pigment, was confirmed and extended. Mutants of one new class excreted a product likely to be a new intermediate in monopyrrole synthesis, those of a second excreted a new product in the bipyrrole pathway, and those of a third were blocked at early steps in both pathways. Two novel classes of mutants were isolated, in each of which a lack of some product present in Serratia and Escherichia cultures resulted in loss of all steps in prodigiosin biosynthesis.