On Thu, 04 Apr 2002 03:10:36 GMT, Tom McCloud
<mccloud-tom at worldnet.att.net> wrote:
> Fluorescein has been one of the most commonly used dyes in
>biology for many years, and other fluoresceins and galleins are used
>for a great many purposes from food colorings to textile dyes. I had
>always assumed that the fluoresceins were synthetic substances, until
>recently, when I stumbled across a couple very old references to
>production of fluorescein by Pseudomonas aeruginosa and P. pyocyaneus,
>( for example - King, et.al., Canadian J. Research 26C, 514, 1948).
Tom,
I would be somewhat surprised if Ps made the specific chemical
fluorescein; perhaps there is some terminology issue in these older
papers.
Some groups of Ps do make fluorescent pigments. In fact, those species
are known as the fluorescent pseudomonads. The most famous of the
pigments is pyocyanin, which is not closely related to fluorescein.
I would suggest you include the word Pseudomonas in any search, and
maybe search out more generally on Ps pigments. Using pyocyanin as a
search term may or may not help. A review article on Ps pigments,
perhaps found with the help of the term pyocyanin, could be very
useful.
You might also try Medline; they do index much of the general bio
literature.
bob
posted/emailed
> My next question was about the biosynthetic pathway for
>fluorescein, but a SciFinder search failed to turn up anything
>specific. Actually, it turned up hundreds of hits on 'fluorescein',
>as in used for staining and thousands on biosynthesis, but nothing
>linking those two. I read down through about a hundred titles listed
>as 'biosynthesis and fluorescein close together', but saw nothing of
>interest.
> And I was also interested in learning whether there were other
>similar compounds, either fluoresceins or galleins, also produced by
>various microbes.
> I've got access to the literature, but need some help in
>getting into it, specifically on this topic. Suggestions of authors
>I should search on? Other tactics for finding articles on microbial
>biosynthesis of fluorescein? Thanks for the help.
> Tom McCloud
> SAIC-Frederick
