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The PII protein GlnK is a pleiotropic regulator for morphological differentiation and secondary metabolism in Streptomyces coelicolor

  • Genomics, Transcriptomics, Proteomics
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Abstract

GlnK is an important nitrogen sensor protein in Streptomyces coelicolor. Deletion of glnK results in a medium-dependent failure of aerial mycelium and spore formation and loss of antibiotic production. Thus, GlnK is not only a regulator of nitrogen metabolism but also of morphological differentiation and secondary metabolite production. Through a comparative transcriptomic approach between the S. coelicolor wild-type and a S. coelicolor glnK mutant strain, 142 genes were identified that are differentially regulated in both strains. Among these are genes of the ram and rag operon, which are involved in S. coelicolor morphogenesis, as well as genes involved in gas vesicle biosynthesis and ectoine biosynthesis. Surprisingly, no relevant nitrogen genes were found to be differentially regulated, revealing that GlnK is not an important nitrogen sensor under the tested conditions.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge Anders Øverby, Sunniva Hoel, Øyvind M. Jakobsen, and Ingemar Nærdal for their excellent participation in fermentation experiments and the members of the STREAM consortium led by E. M. H. Wellington for their input and discussions. This project was supported by the EU-funded (FP6) ActinoGEN project (LSHM-CT-2004-005224) and grants of the ERA-NET SysMO Project [GEN2006-27745-E/SYS]: (P-UK-01-11-3i), “STREAM”, and the Research Council of Norway [project no. 181840/I30].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Microbiology/Biotechnology, Interfaculty Institute of Microbiology and Infection Medicine, Faculty of Science, University of Tübingen, Auf der Morgenstelle 28, 72076, Tübingen, Germany

    Eva Waldvogel, Rafat Amin, Merle Nentwich, Wolfgang Wohlleben & Yvonne Mast

  2. Center for Bioinformatics Tübingen, Faculty of Science, University of Tübingen, Sand 14, 72076, Tübingen, Germany

    Alexander Herbig, Florian Battke & Kay Nieselt

  3. Department of Biotechnology, SINTEF Materials and Chemistry, Sem Sælandsvei 2a, 7465, Trondheim, Norway

    Trond E. Ellingsen & Alexander Wentzel

  4. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Warwick, Gibbet Hill Road, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK

    David A. Hodgson

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  1. Eva Waldvogel
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Correspondence to Yvonne Mast.

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Eva Waldvogel and Alexander Herbig are the first authors of the article.

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Fig. S1

Expression profiles of the 41 genes that show a variant expression profile in the SCglnK-3 mutant but not in the wild-type strain. The centroid profile is shown as a dotted blue line (JPEG 80 kb)

High resolution (TIFF 452 kb)

Fig. S2

Expression profiles of the nar2 operon (blue: wild-type; red: SC glnK-3). (JPEG 123 kb)

High resolution (TIFF 205 kb)

Fig. S3

Expression profiles of the ectABCD genes (blue: wild-type; red: SCglnK-3) (JPEG 116 kb)

High resolution (TIFF 188 kb)

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Waldvogel, E., Herbig, A., Battke, F. et al. The PII protein GlnK is a pleiotropic regulator for morphological differentiation and secondary metabolism in Streptomyces coelicolor . Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 92, 1219–1236 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-011-3644-1

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