STUDIES ON PIGMENTATION OF SERRATIA MARCESCENS

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Abstract
It was previously reported that an orange mutant of S. marcescens will induce red pigmentation in a white mutant if the two are grown together (syntrophic pigmentation). The inducing substance(s) could not be extracted from orange organisms. The pigment produced by growing orange and white organisms together was analyzed by circular paper chromatography of extracts. A single paper chromato-gram developed in a diethyl and petroleum ether solvent (11) demonstrated that the white organism contained no pigment, the orange organism contained a single pigment, and the red parent organism contained 4 pigment fractions. Pigment from the mixed orange and white organisms in the same circular chromatogram was separated into 4 bands. Three of these bands, one orange and 2 red, were identical chromatographically and spectrophotometrically to the same fractions present in natural red pigment. The 4th band traveled with an Rf value intermediate between the wild-type pigment and orange mutant pigment. Elution of this band and further chromatography in several solvents did not effect a clean separation of any components. However, spectro-photometric analysis of pigment eluted from the band demonstrated that the fraction was an admixture of orange pigment from the orange mutant and a blue fraction of natural pigment. Thus, syntrophic pigment consists of the same 4 fractions as natural pigment, and contains as well the orange pigment of the Inducing organism. Orange pigment per se does not contribute to the formation of syntrophic pigment.