Can higher pigment production in bacteria (e.g. Serratia marcescens, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, etc.) in presence of a particular compound(s), be taken as an indication that the organism is under stress?
What type of experiments can be done to quantify stress / stress response?
So far many studies have been conducted to characterize the stress response i.a in Listeria monocytogene and Staph aureus (less).You can easily review this topic combing through Pubmed articles. There's also an interesting issue of so-called SOS Response, a response to the factors that are strong enough to severly damage the cell (and cause DNA damages) but still not strong enough to kill it. A cell 'replies' to this sublethal factors by activation/increase/alteration of transcription/translation of many genes. This may be measured by qPCR and with use of other techniques.
Basing on the colonies' phenotype solely in Staph aureus might be a little bit tricky, as there are many factors that may influence it. For example color of the Staph colony depends on medium, phage content (lysogen vs non lysogen). According to several researchers TSST producing strain are 'more yellow'.
Best,
Magdalena
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