Pre‐sporulation stages of Streptomyces differentiation: state‐of‐the‐art and future perspectives

Streptomycetes comprise very important industrial bacteria, producing two‐thirds of all clinically relevant secondary metabolites. They are mycelial microorganisms with complex developmental cycles that include programmed cell death ( PCD ) and sporulation. Industrial fermentations are usually performed in liquid cultures (large bioreactors), conditions in which S treptomyces strains generally do not sporulate, and it was traditionally assumed that there was no differentiation. In this work, we review the current knowledge on S treptomyces pre‐sporulation stages of S treptomyces differentiation.