[Bacterial pigment prodigiosin and its genotoxic effects].

The prodigiosin preparation was isolated and purified from Serratia marcescens ATCC 9986, using chromatographic methods. The analysis of the preparation by TLC, NMR-spectrometry and mass-spectrometry allowed to confirm the red pigment fraction as the prodigiosin and detect its purity. Originally, the specific features of the toxic and genotoxic effects of prodigiosin and the possibility of induction of mutations by pigment in the cells of Salmonella typhimurium TA 100 (Ames test) and chromosome damage of mammalian erythroblasts have been determined.

[The accumulation of proteins with chitinase activity in the culture media of the parent and mutant Serratia marcescens strain grown in the presence of mitomycin C].

The study of the accumulation pattern of extracellular proteins with chitinase activity in the parent Serratia marcescens strain Bú 211 (ATCC 9986) grown in the presence of mitomycin C and its mutant strain with the constitutive synthesis of chitinases grown in the absence of the inducer showed that chitinase activity appeared in the culture liquids of both strains at the end of the exponential phase (4 h of growth) and reached a maximum in the stationary phase (18-20 h of growth). The analysis of the culture liquids (12 h of growth) by denaturing electrophoresis in PAAG followed by the protein renaturation step revealed the presence of four extracellular proteins with chitinase activity and molecular masses of 21, 38, 52, and 58 kDa.

[Phosphatase from Proteus mirabilis].

Cell-free preparations of Proteus mirabilis contained a phosphatase (EC 3.1.3.

[Endonuclease from Proteus mirabilis].

Two isoforms of nuclease displaying DNase and RNase activities were found in the culture liquid and periplasm of Proteus mirabilis. The enzyme was isolated from the periplasm and then purified to a functionally homogeneous state. The nuclease was equally potent in cleaving denatured and native DNAs by the endonuclease mechanism and was designated Pm endonuclease.

[Biosynthesis of Proteus mirabilis nuclease].

The culture liquid and periplasm of Proteus mirabilis contained nuclease, an enzyme with DNase and RNase activities. The nuclease was most actively synthesized in the early exponential and stationary growth phases. Nuclease synthesis was regulated by nucleic acids (induction by substrate) and inorganic phosphate (end-product inhibition).