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Characterization of differentiation, anaerobiosis and stress responses in standing liquid cultures of Streptomyces by a functional genomics approach

Reference	BBS/E/J/0000A193
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Mark Buttner
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	John Innes Centre
Department	John Innes Centre Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	22,766
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/06/2004
End date	31/05/2006
Duration	24 months

Abstract

Streptomycetes are mycelial soil bacteria that undergo a complex developmental life cycle on solid media, which is accompanied by the production of secondary metabolites, e.g. antibiotics. Streptomyces coelicolor is the model Streptomycete whose 8.7 Mb genome sequence was published recently. The genome revealed an unusually high number (965) of putative regulatory genes including 65 sigma factors as well as unexpected putative gene clusters involved in anaerobic metabolism. The latter was unexpected as Streptomyces were considered to be obligate aerobes. Recently, I have shown that morphological differentiation of S. coelicolor also occurs in standing liquid minimal medium. After a period of submerged growth, hyphae migrate to the air interface, where they become fixed by a rigid reflecting film. Colonies that result from these hyphae form sporulating aerial hyphae. In contrast, shaken liquid cultures of S. coelicolor do not differentiate. In addition, liquid standing cultures rapidly become anoxic only 1 to 2 mm below the surface, implying the existence of metabolic pathways supporting anaerobic growth or enabling the organism to survive long periods of low oxygen conditions. The proposed project aims to understand growth, stress responses and developmental pathways at the molecular level in S. coelicolor in standing liquid cultures. This will be done by identifying differentially expressed genes in liquid and solid media using DNA microarrays and proteomics. The roles of the identified genes in morphological differentiation, (anaerobic) stress, and anaerobic/microaerophilic growth will be investigated using the rapid PCR-directed gene-disruption method developed at the host institute, and through biochemical characterization of selected proteins.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Plant & Microbial Sciences (PMS)
Research Topics	X – not assigned to a current Research Topic
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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