Streptomyces

? Streptomyces
Slide culture of a Streptomyces sp.
Scientific classification
<tr valign=top><td>Kingdom:</td><td>Bacteria </td></tr><tr valign=top><td>Phylum:</td><td>Actinobacteria </td></tr><tr valign=top><td>Order:</td><td>Actinomycetales </td></tr><tr valign=top><td>Family:</td><td>Streptomycetaceae </td></tr><tr valign=top><td>Genus:</td><td>Streptomyces </td></tr>
<tr bgcolor="lightgrey"><th> Species </th></tr>
S. avermitilis S. coelicolor S. felleus S. ferralitis S. filamentosus S. griseus S. hygroscopicus S. iysosuperficus S. somaliensis S. thermoviolaceus S. violaceoruber plus ~500 additional species.

Streptomyces is a genus of Actinobacteria. They are Gram-positive, have a high GC-content and can be found predominantly in soil. Most Streptomycetes produce spores.

Streptomycetes are characterised by a complex secondary metabolism. They produce a large number of antibiotics that are in clinical use; the now rarely used Streptomycin takes its name directly from the Streptomyces. Streptomycetes are infrequent human pathogens, though infections such as mycetoma can be caused by S. somaliensis.

The complete genome of one of the strain, S. coelicolor A3(2), was published in 2002. At that time, it contains the largest number of genes of any bacterium characterised so far. After that, the complete genome sequence of S. avermitilis was determined. This is the first complete genome sequence of the industrial microorganism. Another unique characteristic is that their chromosomes are linear instead of circular.

S. coelicolor A3(2) taxonomically belongs to S. violaceoruber. Don't mistake S. coelicolor A3(2) for S. coelicolor (Müller) (ATCC 23899).

References

• Bentley SD; Chater KF; Cerdeno-Tarraga AM; Challis GL; Thomson NR; James KD; Harris DE; Quail MA; Kieser H; Harper D; Bateman A; Brown S; Chandra G; Chen CW; Collins M; Cronin A; Fraser A; Goble A; Hidalgo J; Hornsby T; Howarth S; Huang CH; Kieser T; Larke L; Murphy L; Oliver K; O'Neil S; Rabbinowitsch E; Rajandream MA; Rutherford K; Rutter S; Seeger K; Saunders D; Sharp S; Squares R; Squares S; Taylor K; Warren T; Wietzorrek A; Woodward J; Barrell BG; Parkhill J; Hopwood DA. (2002). Complete genome sequence of the model actinomycete Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2).. Nature 417: 141–147.

• Ikeda H; Ishikawa J; Hanamoto A; Shinose M; Kikuchi H; Shiba T; Sakaki Y; Hattori M; Omura S (2003). Complete genome sequence and comparative analysis of the industrial microorganism Streptomyces avermitilis.. Nat. Biotechnol. 21: 526–531.

• Madigan, Michael; Martinko, John (editors) (2005). Brock Biology of Microorganisms, 11th ed., Prentice Hall. ISBN 0131443291.

See also

• List of world records

External links

• S. avermitilis genome homepage (Kitasato Institute for Life Sciences)
  • S. avermitilis is the avermectin producer.
• S. coelicolor A3(2) genome homepage (Sanger Institute)
• Streptomyces.org.uk homepage (John Innes Centre)
• ScoDB - the S. coelicolor A3(2) genome annotation server (John Innes Centre)