SarA influences the sporulation and secondary metabolism in Streptomyces

The filamentous bacteria Streptomyces exhibit a complex life cycle involving morphological differentiation and secondary metabolism. A putative membrane protein gene sarA (sco4069), sporulation and antibiotic production related gene A, was partially characterized in Streptomyces coelicolor M145. The gene product had no characterized functional domains and was highly conserved in Streptomyces. Compared with the wild-type M145, the sarA mutant accelerated sporulation and dramatically decreased the production of actinorhodin and undecylprodigiosin. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction analysis showed that SarA influenced antibiotic production by controlling the abundance of actII-orf4 and redZ messenger RNA. Keywords Streptomyces coelicolor; sporulation; antibioti