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AdpA is the key transcriptional activator for a number of genes of various functions in the A-factor regulatory cascade in Streptomyces griseus , forming an AdpA regulon. Trypsin-like activity was detected at a late stage of growth in the wild-type strain but not in an A-factor-deficient mutant. Consistent with these observations, two trypsin genes, sprT and sprU , in S. griseus were found to be members of the AdpA regulon; AdpA activated the transcription of both genes by binding to the operators located at about −50 nucleotide positions with respect to the transcriptional start point. The transcription of sprT and sprU, induced by AdpA, was most active at the onset of sporulation. Most trypsin activity exerted by S. griseus was attributed to SprT, because trypsin activity in an sprT -disrupted mutant was greatly reduced but that in an sprU -disrupted mutant was only slightly reduced. This was consistent with the observation that the amount of the sprT mRNA was much greater than that of the sprU transcript. Disruption of both sprT and sprU (mutant Δ sprTU ) reduced trypsin activity to almost zero, indicating that no trypsin genes other than these two were present in S. griseus . Even the double mutant Δ sprTU grew normally and developed aerial hyphae and spores over the same time course as the wild-type strain.

The drrC gene, cloned from the daunorubicin (DNR)- and doxorubicin-producing strain of Streptomyces peucetius ATCC 29050, encodes a 764-amino-acid protein with a strong sequence similarity to the Escherichia coli and Micrococcus luteus UvrA proteins involved in excision repair of DNA. Expression of drrC was correlated with the timing of DNR production in the growth medium tested and was not dependent on the presence of DNR. Since introduction of drrC into Streptomyces lividans imparted a DNR resistance phenotype, this gene is believed to be a DNR resistance gene. The drrC gene could be disrupted in the non-DNR-producing S. peucetius dnrJ mutant but not in the wild-type strain, and the resulting dnrJ drrC double mutant was significantly more sensitive to DNR in efficiency-of-plating experiments. Expression of drrC in an E. coli uvrA strain conferred significant DNR resistance to this highly DNR-sensitive mutant. However, the DrrC protein did not complement the uvrA mutation to protect the mutant from the lethal effects of UV or mitomycin even though it enhanced the UV resistance of a uvrA+ strain. We speculate that the DrrC protein mediates a novel type of DNR resistance, possibly different from the mechanism of DNR resistance governed by the S. peucetius drrAB genes, which are believed to encode a DNR antiporter.

The AfsR protein is essential for the biosynthesis at the wild-type level of A-factor, actinorhodin, and undecylprodigiosin in Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) and Streptomyces lividans. Because overexpression of the afsR gene caused some deleterious effect on these strains, a multicopy plasmid carrying the whole afsR gene was introduced into Streptomyces griseus, from which a crude cell lysate was prepared as a protein source. The AfsR protein was purified to homogeneity from the cytoplasmic fraction through several steps of chromatography, including affinity column chromatography with ATP-agarose and use of anti-AfsR antibody for its detection. The molecular weight of AfsR was estimated by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and by gel filtration to be 105,300, which is in good agreement with that deduced from the nucleotide sequence of afsR. The purified AfsR protein was found to be phosphorylated through the transfer of the gamma-phosphate group of ATP in the presence of the cell extracts of S. coelicolor A3(2) and S. lividans. This phosphorylation proceeded very rapidly, and no competition was observed with CTP, GTP, UTP, or cyclic AMP. In the cell extract of S. griseus, no activity phosphorylating the AfsR protein was detected, suggesting that this activity is not generally present in Streptomyces spp. but is specific to certain species. It is conceivable that the extent of phosphorylation of the AfsR protein modulates its regulatory activity which, in turn, regulates expression of some target gene(s) involved in the secondary-metabolite formation in S. coelicolor A3(2).

Here, we present the high-quality draft genome sequence of the agar-degrading marine gammaproteobacterium Alteromonadaceae sp. strain G7, which was isolated from coastal seawater to be utilized as a bioresource for production of agar-derived biofuels. The 3.91-Mb genome contains a number of genes encoding algal polysaccharide-degrading enzymes such as agarases and sulfatases.

S-Adenosyl-l-methionine synthetase (SAM-s) catalyzes the biosynthesis of SAM from ATP andl-methionine. Despite extensive research with many organisms, its role inStreptomycessp. remains unclear. In the present study, the putative SAM-s gene was isolated from a spectinomycin producer,Streptomyces spectabilis. The purified protein from the transformedEscherichia coliwith the isolated gene synthesized SAM froml-methionine and ATP in vitro, strongly indicating that the isolated gene indeed encoded the SAM-s protein. The overexpression of the SAM-s gene inStreptomyces lividansTK23 inhibited sporulation and aerial mycelium formation but enhanced the production of actinorhodin in both agar plates and liquid media. Surprisingly, the overexpressed SAM was proven by Northern analysis to increase the production of actinorhodin through the induction ofactII-ORF4, a transcription activator of actinorhodin biosynthetic gene clusters. In addition, we found that a certain level of intracellular SAM is critical for the induction of antibiotic biosynthetic genes, since the control strain harboring only the plasmid DNA did not show any induction ofactII-ORF4 until it reached a certain level of SAM in the cell. From these results, we concluded that the SAM plays important roles as an intracellular factor in both cellular differentiation and antibiotic production inStreptomycessp.

The gene encoding aklavinone 11-hydroxylase of Streptomyces peucetius subsp. caesius ATCC 27952 was cloned and sequenced. The deduced amino acid sequence of the gene contains at least two common motifs of well-conserved amino acid sequences of several flavin-type bacterial hydroxylases. The hydroxylase gene is apparently transcribed from a single transcriptional start point. The phenotype of a dnrF mutant generated by gene disruption supports the idea that the dnrF gene encodes aklavinone 11-hydroxylase.