During the life cycle of the filamentous bacteria Streptomyces, morphological differentiation is closely integrated with fundamental growth and cell-cycle processes, as well as with truly complex multicellular behaviour that involves hormone-like extracellular signalling and coordination with an extraordinarily diverse secondary metabolism. Not only are the bacterial cytoskeleton and the machineries for cell-wall assembly, cell division and chromosome segregation reorganized during sporulation, but the developmental programme of these fascinating organisms also has many unusual elements, including the formation of a sporulating aerial mycelium and the production of a surfactant peptide and a hydrophobic sheath that allow cells to escape from the surface tension of the growth medium.

SummaryStreptomycetes grow by cell wall extension at hyphal tips. The molecular basis for such polar growth in prokaryotes is largely unknown. It is reported here that DivIVA SC , the Streptomyces coelicolor homologue of the Bacillus subtilis protein DivIVA, is essential and directly involved in hyphal tip growth and morphogenesis. A DivIVA SC -EGFP hybrid was distinctively localized to hyphal tips and lateral branches. Reduction of divIVA SC expression to about 10% of the normal level produced a phenotype strikingly similar to that of many tip growth mutants in fungi, including irregular curly hyphae and apical branching. Overexpression of the gene dramatically perturbed determination of cell shape at the growing tips. Furthermore, staining of nascent peptidoglycan with a fluorescent vancomycin conjugate revealed that induction of overexpression in normal hyphae disturbed tip growth, and gave rise to several new sites of cell wall assembly, effectively causing hyperbranching. The results show that DivIVA SC is a novel bacterial morphogene, and it is localized at or very close to the apical sites of peptidoglycan assembly in Streptomyces hyphae.

Streptomyces coelicolor is the genetically best characterized species of a populous genus belonging to the Gram-positive Actinobacteria. Streptomycetes are filamentous soil organisms, well known for the production of a plethora of biologically active secondary metabolic compounds. The Streptomyces developmental life cycle is uniquely complex, and involves coordinated multicellular development with both physiological and morphological differentiation of several cell types, culminating in production of secondary metabolites and dispersal of mature spores. This review presents a current appreciation of the signaling mechanisms used to orchestrate the decision to undergo morphological differentiation, and the regulators and regulatory networks that direct the intriguing development of multigenomic hyphae, first to form specialized aerial hyphae, and then to convert them into chains of dormant spores. This current view of S. coelicolor development is destined for rapid evolution as data from “-omics” studies shed light on gene regulatory networks, new genetic screens identify hitherto unknown players, and the resolution of our insights into the underlying cell biological processes steadily improve.

The complex life cycle of streptomycetes involves two distinct filamentous cell forms: the growing (or vegetative) hyphae and the reproductive (or aerial) hyphae, which differentiate into long chains of spores. Until recently, little was known about the signalling pathways that regulate the developmental transitions leading to sporulation. In this Review, we discuss important new insights into these pathways that have led to the emergence of a coherent regulatory network, focusing on the erection of aerial hyphae and the synchronous cell division event that produces dozens of unigenomic spores. In particular, we highlight the role of cyclic di-GMP (c-di-GMP) in controlling the initiation of development, and the role of the master regulator BldD in mediating c-di-GMP signalling.

Carbon starvation induces the development of a starvation-and stress-resistant cell state in marine Vibrio sp. strain S14 (CCUG 15956