Vol. 8, Issue 6 (2019)

Bacteria communicate with each other with the help of signaling molecules called as autoinducers (AI) by a process known as Quorum sensing (QS). The production of virulence factors of the pathogenic bacteria is the result of QS regulated gene expression of the bacterial consortium at a higher density. Serratia marcescens is a prominent opportunistic pathogen which are found to cause nosocomial infections. The Virulent factors secreted by Serratia marcescens under the influence of QS are lecitinase, lipase, chitinase, chloroperoxidase, hemolysin and pigment prodigiosin. The continuous and inappropriate use of antibiotics made S. marcescens a multi-drug resistant bacteria. An alternative for the antibiotic treatment was inhibition of QS, which indirectly inhibits the virulent nature of the pathogenic bacteria. In this study, inhibition of prodigiosin, a pigment produced by S. marcescens was tested with a fungal extract from fungi isolated from dump site (extreme environment). The fungal extract was found to inhibit QS by causing a reduction in the production of pigment. The fungal extract was subjected to GCMS analysis to find the active compounds present and five major compounds were detected. The extract was also examined for its anti-tumor effect on lung Adenocarcinoma cell line A549 and was found to inhibit proliferation of the cells.