Final Report Summary - STRP-DIFFERENTIATION (BIOMOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF STREPTOMYCES DIFFERENTIATION AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH SECONDARY METABOLITE PRODUCTION)
Our main outcomes were: the identification of an unprecedented type of cell division based on cross-membranes instead of peptidoglycan-based cross-walls that changed the old dogma that Streptomyces vegetative hyphae have scarce compartmentalisation; we demonstrated that the loss of selective membrane permeability during Streptomyces PCD is gradual, resembling eukaryotic apoptosis, and forming internal membrane vesicles before the loss of membrane permeability occurs; we identified the differences in the transcriptomes, proteomes and phosphoproteomes of MI (vegetative) and MII (reproductive) mycelia in solid sporulating cultures and liquid non-sporulating cultures; we demonstrated that hyphal differentiation is one of the keys to improve and activate secondary metabolism in industrial bioreactors; we made 81 mutants in genes differentially expressed during development, and 55 of them (68% of the total) had clear and distinctive phenotypes that leaded to the characterisation of novel mechanisms controlling germination, antibiotic production and differentiation.