The promoter of a cold-shock-like gene has pleiotropic effects on Streptomyces antibiotic biosynthesis.

We have isolated a Streptomyces hygroscopicus chromosomal DNA fragment able to induce production of the blue-pigmented antibiotic actinorhodin in Streptomyces lividans. The 1.9-kb fragment contains four orfs (orf1-4) of which only orf2 and orf3 were complete. The minimal region involved in activation of actinorhodin production is limited to 165 bp corresponding to the promoter region of orf3. The truncated Orf1 show homologies with threonine synthases, Orf2 is similar to other proteins of unknown function, Orf3 (here named Csp1) is homologous to cold-shock-induced proteins of the Csp family, and Orf4 encodes the N-terminal region of GroEL2. Transcription of csp1 seems to be subjected to temporal control but is not obviously induced by cold shock. Interestingly, the csp1-groEL2 region pleiotropically regulates the production of antibiotics from Streptomyces coelicolor and Streptomyces nodosus.