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Spore colour in Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) involves the developmentally regulated synthesis of a compound biosynthetically related to polyketide antibiotics
Author(s) -
Davis N. K.,
Chater K. F.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
molecular microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.857
H-Index - 247
eISSN - 1365-2958
pISSN - 0950-382X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2958.1990.tb00545.x
Subject(s) - streptomyces coelicolor , biology , polyketide , streptomyces , genetics , transposon mutagenesis , shuttle vector , subcloning , actinorhodin , plasmid , mutant , gene , restriction map , dna , locus (genetics) , transposable element , biosynthesis , bacteria , vector (molecular biology) , recombinant dna
Summary Streptomyces coelicolor produces spores whose development of a grey colour requires the activity of the whiE locus. The cloned whiE locus was identified after mobilization into a whiE mutant of a library of S. coelicolor DNA inserted into a transmissible plasmid vector. The whiE region of the cloned DNA was localized both by subcloning and by mutagenesis of the cloned DNA with the Streptomyces transposon Tn 4560. Nucleotide sequencing of this region revealed seven open reading frames, of which six show homo‐logy at the level of deduced gene products with genes involved in the synthesis of polyketide antibiotics. A previously described S. coelicolor DNA segment encoding biosynthesis of a brown pigment (Horinouchi and Beppu, 1985) corresponds to the cloned whiE DNA. It is proposed that whiE is normally expressed only in the aerial hyphae, where the biosynthetic product is responsible for spore colour.