Two promoters for the whiB sporulation gene of Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) and their activities in relation to development.

Two transcripts corresponding to the whiB sporulation gene of Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) that differed in length at their 5' ends by 164 nucleotides were identified by S1 mapping. Their presumptive promoters differed from each other; the more downstream, P2, resembled typical prokaryotic promoters (i.e., those recognized by the major form of RNA polymerase) at five of six positions in its -10 and -35 regions; and the more upstream, P1, was comparably similar, instead, to the previously described hrdDp1 promoter (M. J. Buttner, K. F. Chater, and M. J. Bibb, J. Bacteriol. 172:3367-3378, 1990) around -40, -10, and +1. In surface cultures of the wild-type strain, the abundance of transcripts from the weak P1 promoter showed no obvious correlation with the developmental stage, whereas transcripts from P2 were barely detectable until aerial mycelium was present and then became relatively abundant, consistent with the developmental role of whiB. Both types of transcript were detected during and, to a lesser extent, after rapid growth in liquid culture. In addition, both promoters were utilized in vitro by RNA polymerase purified from a liquid culture of S. coelicolor. Transcription from P1 and P2 was observed during surface culture in strains carrying mutations blocking aerial mycelium formation (bldA and bldB) or the formation of spores in aerial mycelium (whiA, whiB, whiG, and whiH). Thus, whiB transcription is not severely dependent on any of these developmental genes, among which whiG is the determinant of a putative sigma factor specific for, and crucial to, sporulation.