Molecular regulation of development and differentiation inStreptomyces

Development and differentiation is an important and leading research field in modem biology. Streptomyces has a complicated life cycle of morphological differentiation including the spore germination, aerial mycelium and spore formation. Each developmental stage has a distinguished morphological feature which greatly facilitates the identification of developmental mutants, the complementary cloning and the spatial and temporal expression of the genes involved in differentiation. This characteristic of Streptomyces is comparatively superior to other prokaryotic bacteria such as Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis and Myxococcus xanthus. Moreover, Streptomyces also possesses a complicated physiological differentiation in which it produces a wide variety of secondary metabolites (more than half of the 12 000 or so known antibiotics), including many important antibiotics used in medicine, agriculture and industry. Studies on the molecular mechanism of antibiotic biosynthesis will be helpful in improving the antibiotic producer and developing some new medicines. In comparison with eukaryotic microorganism such as Asperillus nidulans,the structure of genetic material in Streptomyces is simple,and it is linear and conkaryotes such as Streptomyces cerevisiae. The large number of genes are the molecular basis of Streptomyces differentiation,suggesting that the regulation mechanism of gene expression in differentiation and development may be complex1]