Quorum Quenching Activity of Pigments Produced by Actinomycetes

Quorum sensing is a cell to cell communication system prevailed by the microorganisms for its survival. Different quorum sensing molecules like AHL, Oligopeptides and Autoinducers are produced for this communication. Communication between cells leads to the formation of biofilm. These biofilms are first step for the virulence of pathogen and also imparts resistance to the pathogen. Hence this study was designed to identify compounds from Actinomycetes that can disrupt the biofilm formation by the organism through quorum quenching activity. Among the eight pigmented actinomycetes used C5-5Y showed higher activity against the test pathogens (Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus mutants and Salmonella sp. ). The yellow pigment produced by the strain was extracted from biomass with acetone and was partially purified through TLC, This partially purified yellow pigment was found to show inhibition of Gram positive bacteria Staph. aureus and Strep. mutants by quenching the quorum sensing molecules. This result indicates the potency of the pigment in controlling biofilm formation by the Gram positive pathogens.