Gene expression and regulation in Streptomyces

The bacteria included in the genus Streptomyces have a great industrial importance due to its wide capacity to produce and secrete various hydrolytic enzymes an a huge number of secondary metabolites, mainly antibiotics. They also have a basic interest because they undergo complex differentiation process that goes through various stages: spores, substrate mycelium, aerial mycelium and spores again. Our group is developing several lines of research in these areas. So, we are studying the regulation exerted by two-component systems that affect the production of antibiotics and exploring the possibility of activating silenced routes by using Streptomyces interactions with other species of bacteria. On the other hand, we are building different expression vectors based on a positive selection system (a toxin-Antitoxin system) which do not need antibiotic resistance selection.