title: The red pigment prodigiosin is not an essential virulence factor in entomopathogenic Serratia marcescens.
abstract: Although pigments produced by pathogenic microbes are generally hypothesized as essential virulence factors, the role of red pigment prodigiosin in the pathogenesis of entomopathogenic Serratia marcescens is not clear. In this study, we analyzed the pathogenicity of different pigmented S. marcescens strains and their non-pigmented mutants in silkworms. Each pigmented strain and the corresponding non-pigmented mutants showed very similar LD50 value (statistically no difference), but caused very different symptom (color of the dead larva). Our results clearly indicated that the red pigment prodigiosin is not an essential virulence factor in entomopathogenic S. marcescens.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Invertebrate Pathology and Applied Microbiology, College of Biotechnology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400716, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Invertebrate Pathology and Applied Microbiology, College of Biotechnology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400716, China.
authors.forename: JingHua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Invertebrate Pathology and Applied Microbiology, College of Biotechnology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400716, China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Invertebrate Pathology and Applied Microbiology, College of Biotechnology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400716, China.
authors.forename: XiaoYuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Invertebrate Pathology and Applied Microbiology, College of Biotechnology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400716, China.
authors.forename: TingTing
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Xiang
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Invertebrate Pathology and Applied Microbiology, College of Biotechnology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400716, China; College of Animal Science and Technology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400716, China.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Invertebrate Pathology and Applied Microbiology, College of Biotechnology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400716, China. Electronic address: canbl3312@126.com.
authors.forename: YongJi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D012831:Bombyx / Q000382:microbiology*; D011353:Prodigiosin / Q000378:metabolism*; D016868:Serratia Infections / Q000378:metabolism*; D012706:Serratia marcescens / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D014774:Virulence / Q000502:physiology; D037521:Virulence Factors / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D037521:Virulence Factors; D011353:Prodigiosin
keywords: Prodigiosin; Serratia marcescens; Silkworm; Virulence