This career advancement award provides partial support for Dr. Champness during a sabbatical leave at the John Innes Institute in Norwich, United Kingdom. Streptomycetes are well-known for their capacity to synthesize a vast repertoire of secondary metabolites (antibiotics). Besides their commercial importance, the Streptomyces are interesting for their complex developmental cycle. In the course of this life cycle, antibiotic synthesis is developmentally regulated. The objective of the research in this proposal is to define aspects of the global genetic regulation of Streptomyces coelicolor antibiotic synthesis. The research planned is based on a set of genes, recently discovered in Dr. Champness laboratory, which regulate the expression of antibiotic genes. The major goal is investigation of the mechanism by which these genes globally regulate antibiotic synthesis. %%% This molecular analysis promises to contribute not only to our understanding of microbial developmental gene regulation, but also to biotechnology. Understanding of S. coelicolor regulation is highly likely to explain much of antibiotic regulation in other Streptomycetes and Actinomycetes, and thus increase the potential for rational manipulation of production of commercially important metabolites including the many new metabolites that are continuously being discovered.
