Acidic pH shock induces the expressions of a wide range of stress-response genes.
BACKGROUND
Environmental signals usually enhance secondary metabolite production in Streptomycetes by initiating complex signal transduction system. It is known that different sigma factors respond to different types of stresses, respectively in Streptomyces strains, which have a number of unique signal transduction mechanisms depending on the types of environmental shock. In this study, we wanted to know how a pH shock would affect the expression of various sigma factors and shock-related proteins in S. coelicolor A3(2).


RESULTS
According to the results of transcriptional and proteomic analyses, the major number of sigma factor genes were upregulated by an acidic pH shock. Well-studied sigma factor genes of sigH (heat shock), sigR (oxidative stress), sigB (osmotic shock), and hrdD that play a major role in the secondary metabolism, were all strongly upregulated by the pH shock. A number of heat shock proteins including the DnaK family and chaperones such as GroEL2 were also observed to be upregulated by the pH shock, while their repressor of hspR was strongly downregulated. Oxidative stress-related proteins such as thioredoxin, catalase, superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, and osmotic shock-related protein such as vesicle synthases were also upregulated in overall.


CONCLUSIONS
From these observations, an acidic pH shock was considered to be one of the strongest stresses to influence a wide range of sigma factors and shock-related proteins including general stress response proteins. The upregulation of the sigma factors and shock proteins already found to be related to actinorhodin biosynthesis was considered to have contributed to enhanced actinorhodin productivity by mediating the pH shock signal to regulators or biosynthesis genes for actinorhodin production.
Kim
Yoon Jung
YJ
Dept. of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (The Brain Korea 21 Program), Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 373-1 Guseong-dong, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-701, Korea. kimyoonjung@kaist.ac.kr
Moon
Myung Hee
MH
Song
Jae Yang
JY
Smith
Colin P
CP
Hong
Soon-Kwang
SK
Chang
Yong Keun
YK
D000880:Anthraquinones / Q000378:metabolism; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D018869:Heat-Shock Response / Q000235:genetics; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D018384:Oxidative Stress / Q000235:genetics; D012808:Sigma Factor / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D015398:Signal Transduction; D013302:Streptomyces / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development; D000095622:Benzoisochromanequinones
D000880:Anthraquinones; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins; D012808:Sigma Factor; C013390:actinorhodin; D000095622:Benzoisochromanequinones