Violacein
Chemical compound
Violacein is a naturally occurring bis-indole pigment with antibiotic (anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-fungal and anti-tumor) properties. Violacein is produced by several species of bacteria, including Chromobacterium violaceum, and gives these organisms their striking purple hues. Violacein shows increasing commercially interesting uses, especially for industrial applications in cosmetics, medicines and fabrics.
01Biosynthesis
Violacein is formed by enzymatic condensation of two tryptophan molecules, requiring the action of five proteins. The genes required for its production, vioABCDE, and the regulatory mechanisms employed haves been studied within a small number of violacein-producing strains. Production of violacein is controlled by quorum sensing using acyl-homoserine lactones (AHLs).
Only a few genera of bacteria have been reported to produce violacein. These include Chromobacterium, Duganella, Pseudoalteromonas, Janthinobacterium, Iodobacter, Rugamonas, and Massilia.
02Antibiotic activity
Violacein is known to have diverse biological activities, including as a cytotoxic anticancer agent and antibacterial action against Staphylococcus aureus and other gram-positive pathogens. Determining the biological roles of this pigmented molecule has been of particular interest to researchers, and understanding violacein's function and mechanism of action is relevant to potential applications. Commercial production of violacein and related compounds has proven difficult so improving fermentative yields of violacein is being pursued through genetic engineering and synthetic biology.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Violacein”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Violacein.svg by Tomasz Dolinowski, CC0
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