System-level understanding of gene expression and regulation for engineering secondary metabolite production inStreptomyces

Abstract

The gram-positive bacterium,Streptomyces, is noticed for its ability to produce a wide array of pharmaceutically active compounds through secondary metabolism. To discover novel bioactive secondary metabolites and increase the production,Streptomycesspecies have been extensively studied for the past decades. Among the cellular components, RNA molecules play important roles as the messengers for gene expression and diverse regulations taking place at the RNA level. Thus, the analysis of RNA-level regulation is critical to understanding the regulation ofStreptomyces' metabolism and secondary metabolite production. A dramatic advance inStreptomycesresearch was made recently, by exploiting high-throughput technology to systematically understand RNA levels. In this review, we describe the current status of the system-wide investigation ofStreptomycesin terms of RNA, toward expansion of its genetic potential for secondary metabolite synthesis.