Spatio-temporal expression of the pathway-specific regulatory gene redD in S. coelicolor.
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Confocal laser scanning microscopy was used to observe the spatio-temporal expression of the pathway-specific gene redD during S. coelicolor cell cultivation. The corresponding mutant S. coelicolor lyqRY1522 carrying redD::eyfp in the chromosome was constructed. The temporal expression results of the fusion protein during submerged cultivation demonstrated that expression of redD began in the transition phase, continuing through the exponential growth phase to the stationary phase, and reached maximum in the stationary phase. On the other hand, redD was expressed only in substrate mycelia during solid-state culture, while aerial mycelia remained essentially non-fluorescent throughout culture. Results demonstrated that the expression pattern of redD coincides with that of the biosynthesis of the antibiotics during culture, revealing a direct correlation between the spatio-temporal distribution of regulatory gene expression and second metabolism. (+info)
Natural and synthetic tetracycline-inducible promoters for use in the antibiotic-producing bacteria Streptomyces.
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Bacteria in the genus Streptomyces are major producers of antibiotics and other pharmacologically active compounds. Genetic and physiological manipulations of these bacteria are important for new drug discovery and production development. An essential part of any 'genetic toolkit' is the availability of regulatable promoters. We have adapted the tetracycline (Tc) repressor/operator (TetR/tetO) regulatable system from transposon Tn10 for use in Streptomyces. The synthetic Tc controllable promoter (tcp), tcp830, was active in a wide range of Streptomyces species, and varying levels of induction were observed after the addition of 1-100 ng/ml of anhydrotetracycline (aTc). Streptomyces coelicolor contained an innate Tc-controllable promoter regulated by a TetR homologue (SCO0253). Both natural and synthetic promoters were active and inducible throughout growth. Using the luxAB genes expressing luciferase as a reporter system, we showed that induction factors of up to 270 could be obtained for tcp830. The effect of inducers on the growth of S.coelicolor was determined; addition of aTc at concentrations where induction is optimal, i.e. 0.1-1 microg/ml, ranged from no effect on growth rate to a small increase in the lag period compared with cultures with no inducer. (+info)
Genome-scale analysis of Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) metabolism.
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Streptomyces are filamentous soil bacteria that produce more than half of the known microbial antibiotics. We present the first genome-scale metabolic model of a representative of this group--Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2). The metabolism reconstruction was based on annotated genes, physiological and biochemical information. The stoichiometric model includes 819 biochemical conversions and 152 transport reactions, accounting for a total of 971 reactions. Of the reactions in the network, 700 are unique, while the rest are iso-reactions. The network comprises 500 metabolites. A total of 711 open reading frames (ORFs) were included in the model, which corresponds to 13% of the ORFs with assigned function in the S. coelicolor A3(2) genome. In a comparative analysis with the Streptomyces avermitilis genome, we showed that the metabolic genes are highly conserved between these species and therefore the model is suitable for use with other Streptomycetes. Flux balance analysis was applied for studies of the reconstructed metabolic network and to assess its metabolic capabilities for growth and polyketides production. The model predictions of wild-type and mutants' growth on different carbon and nitrogen sources agreed with the experimental data in most cases. We estimated the impact of each reaction knockout on the growth of the in silico strain on 62 carbon sources and two nitrogen sources, thereby identifying the "core" of the essential reactions. We also illustrated how reconstruction of a metabolic network at the genome level can be used to fill gaps in genome annotation. (+info)
NovG, a DNA-binding protein acting as a positive regulator of novobiocin biosynthesis.
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The biosynthetic gene cluster of the aminocoumarin antibiotic novobiocin contains two putative regulatory genes, i.e. novE and novG. The predicted gene product of novG shows a putative helix-turn-helix DNA-binding motif and shares sequence similarity with StrR, a well-studied pathway-specific transcriptional activator of streptomycin biosynthesis. Here functional proof is provided, by genetic and biochemical approaches, for the role of NovG as a positive regulator of novobiocin biosynthesis. The entire novobiocin cluster of the producer organism Streptomyces spheroides was expressed in the heterologous host Streptomyces coelicolor M512, and additional strains were produced which lacked the novG gene within the heterologously expressed cluster. These Delta novG strains produced only 2% of the novobiocin formed by the S. coelicolor M512 strains carrying the intact novobiocin cluster. The production could be restored by introducing an intact copy of novG into the mutant. The presence of novG on a multicopy plasmid in the strain containing the intact cluster led to almost threefold overproduction of the antibiotic, suggesting that novobiocin biosynthesis is limited by the availability of NovG protein. Furthermore, purified N-terminal His(6)-tagged NovG showed specific DNA-binding activity for the novG-novH and the cloG-cloY intergenic regions of the novobiocin and clorobiocin biosynthetic gene clusters, respectively. By comparing the DNA sequences of the fragments binding NovG, conserved inverted repeats were identified in both fragments, similar to those identified as the binding sites for StrR. The consensus sequence for the StrR and the putative NovG binding sites was GTTCRACTG(N)(11)CRGTYGAAC. Therefore, NovG and StrR apparently belong to the same family of DNA-binding regulatory proteins. (+info)
The SCO2299 gene from Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) encodes a bifunctional enzyme consisting of an RNase H domain and an acid phosphatase domain.
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The SCO2299 gene from Streptomyces coelicolor encodes a single peptide consisting of 497 amino acid residues. Its N-terminal region shows high amino acid sequence similarity to RNase HI, whereas its C-terminal region bears similarity to the CobC protein, which is involved in the synthesis of cobalamin. The SCO2299 gene suppressed a temperature-sensitive growth defect of an Escherichia coli RNase H-deficient strain, and the recombinant SCO2299 protein cleaved an RNA strand of RNA.DNA hybrid in vitro. The N-terminal domain of the SCO2299 protein, when overproduced independently, exhibited RNase H activity at a similar level to the full length protein. On the other hand, the C-terminal domain showed no CobC-like activity but an acid phosphatase activity. The full length protein also exhibited acid phosphatase activity at almost the same level as the C-terminal domain alone. These results indicate that RNase H and acid phosphatase activities of the full length SCO2299 protein depend on its N-terminal and C-terminal domains, respectively. The physiological functions of the SCO2299 gene and the relation between RNase H and acid phosphatase remain to be determined. However, the bifunctional enzyme examined here is a novel style in the Type 1 RNase H family. Additionally, S. coelicolor is the first example of an organism whose genome contains three active RNase H genes. (+info)
Oligomerization of H(+)-pyrophosphatase and its structural and functional consequences.
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The H(+)-pyrophosphatase (H(+)-PPase) consists of a single polypeptide, containing 16 or 17 transmembrane domains. To determine the higher order oligomeric state of Streptomyces coelicolor H(+)-PPase, we constructed a series of cysteine substitution mutants and expressed them in Escherichia coli. Firstly, we analyzed the formation of disulfide bonds, promoted by copper, in mutants with single cysteine substitutions. 28 of 39 mutants formed disulfide bonds, including S545C, a substitution at the periplasmic side. The formation of intermolecular disulfide bonds suppressed the enzyme activity of several, where the substituted residues were located in the cytosol. Creating disulfide links in the cytosol may interfere with the enzyme's catalytic function. Secondly, we prepared double mutants by introducing second cysteine substitutions into the S545C mutant. These double-cysteine mutants produced cross-linked complexes, estimated to be at least tetramers and possibly hexamers. Thirdly, we co-expressed epitope-tagged, wild type, and inactive mutant H(+)-PPases in E. coli and confirmed the formation of oligomers by co-purifying one subunit using the epitope tag used to label the other. The enzyme activity of these oligomers was markedly suppressed. We propose that H(+)-PPase is present as an oligomer made up of at least two or three sets of dimers. (+info)
Disulfide-bond formation in the H+-pyrophosphatase of Streptomyces coelicolor and its implications for redox control and enzyme structure.
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Redox control of disulfide-bond formation in the H+-pyrophosphatase of Streptomyces coelicolor was investigated using cysteine mutants expressed in Escherichia coli. The wild-type enzyme, but not a cysteine-less mutant, was reversibly inactivated by oxidation. To determine the residues involved in oxidative inactivation, different cysteine residues were replaced. Analysis with a cysteine-modifying reagent revealed that the formation of a disulfide bond between cysteines 253 and 621 was responsible for enzyme inactivation. This result suggests that residues in different cytoplasmic loops are close to each other in the tertiary structure. Both cysteine residues are conserved in K+-independent (type II) H+-pyrophosphatases. (+info)
Predicted highly expressed genes in the genomes of Streptomyces coelicolor and Streptomyces avermitilis and the implications for their metabolism.
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Highly expressed genes in bacteria often have a stronger codon bias than genes expressed at lower levels, due to translational selection. In this study, a comparative analysis of predicted highly expressed (PHX) genes in the Streptomyces coelicolor and Streptomyces avermitilis genomes was performed using the codon adaptation index (CAI) as a numerical estimator of gene expression level. Although it has been suggested that there is little heterogeneity in codon usage in G+C-rich bacteria, considerable heterogeneity was found among genes in these two G+C-rich Streptomyces genomes. Using ribosomal protein genes as references, approximately 10% of the genes were predicted to be PHX genes using a CAI cutoff value of greater than 0.78 and 0.75 in S. coelicolor and S. avermitilis, respectively. The PHX genes showed good agreement with the experimental data on expression levels obtained from proteomic analysis by previous workers. Among 724 and 730 PHX genes identified from S. coelicolor and S. avermitilis, 368 are orthologue genes present in both genomes, which were mostly 'housekeeping' genes involved in cell growth. In addition, 61 orthologous gene pairs with unknown functions were identified as PHX. Only one polyketide synthase gene from each Streptomyces genome was predicted as PHX. Nevertheless, several key genes responsible for producing precursors for secondary metabolites, such as crotonyl-CoA reductase and propionyl-CoA carboxylase, and genes necessary for initiation of secondary metabolism, such as adenosylmethionine synthetase, were among the PHX genes in the two Streptomyces species. The PHX genes exclusive to each genome, and what they imply regarding cellular metabolism, are also discussed. (+info)