Multiple paralogous genes related to the Streptomyces coelicolor developmental regulatory gene whiB are present in Streptomyces and other actinomycetes

• Published in: Microbiology (Society for General Microbiology) 2000-02, Vol.146 (2), p.333-343
• Main Authors: Soliveri, J. A, Gomez, J, Bishai, W. R, Chater, K. F
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Actinomycetales - chemistry; Actinomycetales - genetics; Actinomycetales - metabolism; Amino Acid Sequence; Bacterial Proteins - chemistry; Bacterial Proteins - genetics; Bacterial Proteins - metabolism; Bacteriology; Biological and medical sciences; Blotting, Southern; Databases, Factual; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; Genes, Bacterial; Genes, Regulator; Genetics; Microbiology; Molecular Sequence Data; Mycobacterium smegmatis - genetics; Mycobacterium smegmatis - metabolism; Mycobacterium tuberculosis - genetics; Mycobacterium tuberculosis - metabolism; Phylogeny; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; Spores, Bacterial - genetics; Spores, Bacterial - metabolism; Streptomyces - genetics; Streptomyces - growth & development; Streptomyces - metabolism; Streptomyces coelicolor; Transcription Factors - chemistry; Transcription Factors - genetics; Transcription Factors - metabolism; Transcription, Genetic; whiB gene
• ISSN: 1350-0872; 1465-2080
• DOI: 10.1099/00221287-146-2-333

John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Colney, Norwich NR4 7UH, UK 1 Dept of Molecular Microbiology and Centre for Tuberculosis Research, Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, 615 N Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA 2 Author for correspondence: K. F. Chater. Tel: [phone]. Fax: [phone]. e-mail: chater{at}bbsrc.ac.uk The whiB sporulation gene of Streptomyces coelicolor was shown [Davis, N. K. & Chater, K. F. (1992) . Mol Gen Genet 232, 351–358] to encode a small, cysteine-rich putative transcription factor unlike any that had been described previously. The large database of DNA sequences of mycobacteria (like Streptomyces , members of the Actinomycetales) has revealed a family of genes encoding proteins related to WhiB. Mycobacterium tuberculosis contains at least six such genes ( whiB h omologues in m ycobacteria: whmA – F ) and a likely seventh, whmG . Using conserved features of Whm proteins, a PCR-based approach led to the discovery that S. coelicolor A3(2) contains several similar genes. Cloning and sequencing of these whiB - l ike ( wbl ) genes revealed likely orthologues of four of the whm genes of M. tuberculosis . In all, S. coelicolor contains at least five wbl genes in addition to whiB itself. All five were shown by RT-PCR to be transcribed. A Southern blotting survey using each wbl gene as a probe showed that nearly all of a series of representatives of ten actinomycete genera (including morphologically simple organisms) contain close homologues of several wbl genes, suggesting that the ancient progenitor of all these organisms already contained a family of such genes, which have not been found in any other organisms. Keywords: tuberculosis, leprosy, actinomycetes, prokaryotic phylogeny, sporulation in Streptomyces The GenBank accession numbers for the sequences reported in this paper are: wblA , AJ239085 ; wblB , AJ239086 ; wblE , AJ239087 ; and wblI , AJ239088 . a Present address: Departamento de Microbiología y Parasitología, Facultad de Farmacía, Universidad de Alcalá, 28871-Alcalá de Henares, Spain. b Present address: Laboratory of Infection Biology, The Rockefeller University, Box 21, 1230 York Ave, New York, NY 10021, USA.