Pigment-producing microorganisms have become a main focus due to the search
of food-grade microbial pigments for natural food colourant industry. Therefore,
this study aimed to isolate and genetically identify bacteria including pigmentproducing
bacterial strains associated with the tentacles of Holothuria
(Lessonothuria) pardalis (Selenka 1867) from Pulau Tinggi, Johor.
Morphological characteristics of bacteria based on Gram staining were observed
using a digital compound microscope. Partial 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene
sequencing was also incorporated to support the morphological approach. A
number of six partial gene sequences of non-protein coding 16S rRNA were
obtained and the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) analysis
suggested the presence of three known bacteria species from the genera of
Pseudomonas, Chryseobacterium and Klebsiella. The neighbourhood-joining
method and Maximum Likelihood method used in the phylogenetic analysis
supported the identification and classification of the bacteria species. Among the
bacterial isolates, only strain B14 identified as Chryseobacterium sp. produced
pigment i.e. orange pigment. The highest point of cell density of
Chryseobacterium sp. was recorded at 16 hours. However, further analysis is
needed to confirm the pigment characterisation and the potential of this pigment
to be exploited as natural colourant in the food industry.