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Pigmented and non-pigmented strains of Serratia marcescens produced extracellular vesicles and had wetting activity when grown at 30°C but not at 37°C. Light microscopy showed that the red pigment was present in vesicles and intracellular granules. Electron microscopy revealed the presence of vesicles surrounded by the bacterial membrane. Three lipids having the wetting activity, W1, W2 and W3, were isolated by thin-layer chromatography of lipids from different strains of S. marcescens. Dispersions of the isolated wetting agents had small contact angles on a polystyrene surface and the ability to lower surface tension. Wetting agent W1 was the aminolipid serratamolide. Wetting agents W2 and W3 were also aminolipids but were shown to be different from serratamolide by chemical analyses. Wetting agent and prodigiosin (in a pigmented strain) were the main lipids of isolated vesicles.
Matsuyama et al. (1986) studied this question.