The Effect of Prodigiosin Extracted from Serratia marcescens on DNA Fragmentation of Human Peripheral Blood Lymphocytes Cells

Department of Biology, College of sciences, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq Abstract Prodigiosin, is a natural red pigment produced by various bacteria that firstly characterized from Serratia marcescens. It is an alkaloid secondary metabolite with a unique tripyrrol structure.This pigment is a promising drug owing to its reported characteristics of having antifungal, immunosuppressive and anti-cancer activity. In this study prodigiosin was produced by Serratia marcescens., which was isolated from soil identified and characterized by morphology, Gram’s staining, biochemical and carbohydrate fermentation tested and confirmed by the API 20E test. From these samples, six isolates of Serratia marcescens( 24) % were obtained out of 25 soil samples. Ability of these isolates in prodigiosin production was examined to select the efficient isolate in prodigiosin production.Results showed that all of these isolates are prodigiosin producers, and among them one isolate was the most efficient in prodigiosin production. The apoptotic effect of the pigment was assessed in blood lymphocytes cells by DNA fragmentation analysis assay collected from anticoagulated human blood , prodigiosin at all concentrations were significantly increased the percentage of fragmented DNA of peripheral blood Lymphocyte cells compared to control. This study reveals that Prodigiosin has possessed apoptotic property.