Different effects of acidic pH shock on the prodiginine production in Streptomyces coelicolor M511 and SJM1 mutants.

The changes in prodiginines productions caused by pH shock culture of Streptomyces coelicolor strains were estimated. In Streptomyces coelicolor M511, undecylprodiginine and streptorubin B productions increased 1.8-fold (37.22 mg/g) and 2.5-fold (18.61 mg/g), respectively, by pH shock (from 7.2 to 4.0). In contrast, this resulted in the significantly decreased prodigignines production in the redP deletion mutant SJM1; 3.7-fold for undecylprodiginine, 4.4-fold for streptorubin B, 5.2-fold for methylundecylprodiginine, and 6.4-fold for methyldodecylundecylprodiginine, respectively. RT-PCR analyses showed that, during pH shock, expression of redD, the transcription activator gene, was increased while the expression of fabH, the decarboxylative condensation enzyme gene in fatty acid biosynthesis, was decreased in both strains. The enhanced redD expression was in good accordance with the increased total prodiginines production of M511. However, for SJM1 mutant, the decrease of fabH expression occurred more strikingly, such that it became almost completely turned off during acidic pH shock culture. Therefore, a down-regulation of fabH was considered to be the cause of decreased amount of total prodiginines produced, although redD expression was high in SJM1 mutant.