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Streptomycin production by Streptomyces griseus can be modulated by a mechanism not associated with change in the adpA component of the A-factor cascade

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Abstract

In Streptomyces coelicolor, AtrA is an activator of transcription of the actinorhodin cluster-situated regulator gene actII-ORF4. In previous work, we showed that S. coelicolor AtrA binds in vitro to the promoter of S. griseus strR, the streptomycin cluster-situated regulator. We show here that S. griseus carries a single close homologue of atrA and that expression of S. coelicolor AtrA in S. griseus causes a DNA binding-dependent reduction in streptomycin production and in the mRNA levels of strR and genes of streptomycin biosynthesis. However, there is no effect on the level of the mRNA of adpA, which is the only transcription factor that has so far been characterised for strR. The adpA gene is directly regulated by ArpA, the receptor protein for the γ-butyrolactone signalling molecule A-factor. Therefore, to our knowledge, our results provide the first in vivo evidence that A-factor-ArpA-AdpA-StrR regulatory cascade represents only part of the full complexity of regulation of streptomycin biosynthesis in S. griseus. The potential biotechnological application of our findings is discussed.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded in part by a grant from a BBSRC research grant (24/G18095) to S.B. and K.J.M. B.H was the recipient of a visiting scholarship from the State Scholarship Fund of China. Support is also acknowledged from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (30572274) and Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission to B.H. S.P was supported by funding provided by the Royal Thai Government Scholarship under the Teacher Professional Development Project (TPDP) jointly administered by the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Institute for Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology (IPST), and the Ministry of Education, Thailand. We thank Alice Morningstar for the gift of streptomycin-sensitive and -resistant E. coli strains.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS8 2BH, UK

    Simon Baumberg & Kenneth J. McDowall

  2. Institute of Medicinal Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, 100050, China

    Bin Hong

  3. Institute for Innovation and Development of Learning Process, Mahdiol University, Rama VI, Bangkok, 10400, Thailand

    Somkiat Phornphisutthimas

  4. Institute for Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, G1 1XW, UK

    Emma Tilley

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  1. Bin Hong
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  2. Somkiat Phornphisutthimas
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  3. Emma Tilley
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  4. Simon Baumberg
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  5. Kenneth J. McDowall
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Correspondence to Kenneth J. McDowall.

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Hong, B., Phornphisutthimas, S., Tilley, E. et al. Streptomycin production by Streptomyces griseus can be modulated by a mechanism not associated with change in the adpA component of the A-factor cascade. Biotechnol Lett 29, 57–64 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-006-9216-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-006-9216-2

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