FtsY affects sporulation and antibiotic production by whiH in Streptomyces coelicolor.

FtsY, the Signal Recognition Particle (SRP) receptor in bacteria, is known to facilitate the cotranslational protein targeting by recruiting SRP-protein complex to secYEG. We show in this work that deletion of the ftsY gene in Streptomyces coelicolor would also lead to complete blockage of sporulation process and reduced production of antibiotic actinorhodin. These defects cannot be complemented by only the NG domain of FtsY, while full-length ftsY was able to restore spore generation and increase production of actinorhodin in ftsY-disrupted strains. Further transcriptional analysis on sporulation controlling genes, i.e., whiG, whiB, whiH, and prox, indicated that the regulation of sporulation by ftsY is likely to take effect through whiH.