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Red bioactive pigment from Himalayan Janthinobacterium sp. ERMR3:09: optimization, characterization, and potential applications

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Abstract

Prodigiosin is a red pigment commonly produced as a secondary metabolite by Serratia marcescens. It exhibits inherent bioactivities, including antimicrobial and anticancer, with low to no toxic effects on normal cells. The present study investigates a bioactive prodigiosin production from an atypical, red-pigmented, potentially novel Janthinobacterium sp. ERMR3:09 isolated from a glacial moraine. Statistically optimized culture parameters, i.e., w/v 1.0% glucose and 0.08% peptone as carbon and nitrogen sources, temperature 20 °C, and media pH 7, resulted in a four-fold increase in the pigment yield. The upscaled production in an 8 L volume resulted in higher pigment production within a shorter period of 48 h. The ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) analysis validated the identity of the purified pigment as prodigiosin that showed thermostability at 75 °C for 3 h. Evaluation of antimicrobial activity showed potent inhibitory effects (> 50%) against the opportunistic pathogenic fungal and Gram-positive bacterial strains. The pigment showed significant cytotoxicity (p < 0.05) towards A549 and HeLa cell lines with IC50 values of 42.2 μM and 36.11 μM, respectively. The study demonstrated that microbial communities from extreme niches can be ideal sources of bioactive pigments with immense pharmaceutical potential vital for the development of non-synthetic therapeutic agents.

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Data availability

The 16S rRNA gene sequence and complete genome sequence of ERMR3:09 are deposited in GenBank under the accession numbers MT355525 and CP075583, respectively. The strain is deposited in the Microbial Culture Collection at National Centre for Cell Science, Pune, India, under the accession number MCC 4783.

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Acknowledgements

S.M. acknowledges the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Govt. of India, for the Senior Research Fellowship (SRF) award [No. 45/17/2020-/BIO/BMS]. A.K. acknowledges the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Govt. of India, for the Ph.D. studentship award [DBT/JRF/BET-17/I/2017/AL/367]. R.K. acknowledges the Department of Science and Technology (DST) for INSPIRE faculty award [Grant no. DST/INSPIRE/04/2014/001280]. The authors duly acknowledge the Department of Forest, Govt. of Sikkim, and Sikkim State Council of Science and Technology for their assistance in sample collection, Mr. Kunjan Saxena, and Mr. Pawan Kumar for technical assistance. This manuscript represents CSIR-IHBT communication no 5396.

Funding

This work was supported by Science and Engineering Research Board Start-up research grant no. SRG/2019/001071, and DST-TDT project no. DST/TDT/WM/2019/43.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. High Altitude Microbiology Laboratory (HAM-LAB), Biotechnology Division, CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology, Post Box No. 06, Palampur, Himachal Pradesh, 176061, India

    Srijana Mukhia, Anil Kumar & Rakshak Kumar

  2. Department of Microbiology, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, Punjab, 143005, India

    Srijana Mukhia

  3. Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad, 201002, India

    Anil Kumar & Rakshak Kumar

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  1. Srijana Mukhia
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  2. Anil Kumar
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. SM and AK performed experiments, data collection and analysis. SM and AK wrote the manuscript. RK provided overall supervision. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Rakshak Kumar.

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Mukhia, S., Kumar, A. & Kumar, R. Red bioactive pigment from Himalayan Janthinobacterium sp. ERMR3:09: optimization, characterization, and potential applications. Arch Microbiol 206, 44 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-023-03779-3

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