A γ-butyrolactone autoregulator-receptor system involved in the regulation of auricin production in Streptomyces aureofaciens CCM 3239

The γ-butyrolactone (GBL) autoregulator–receptor systems play a role in controlling secondary metabolism and/or morphological differentiation in many Streptomyces species. We previously identified the aur1 gene cluster, located on the Streptomyces aureofaciens CCM 3239 large linear plasmid pSA3239, which is responsible for the production of the angucycline antibiotic auricin. Here, we describe the characterisation of two genes, sagA and sagR, encoding GBL autoregulatory signalling homologues, which lie in the upstream part of the aur1 cluster. SagA was similar to GBL synthases and SagR to GBL receptors. The expression of each gene is directed by its own promoter, sagAp for sagA and sagRp for sagR. Both genes were active mainly during the exponential phase, and their transcription was interdependent. The disruption of sagA abolished auricin production, while the disruption of sagR resulted in precocious but dramatically reduced auricin production. Transcription from the aur1Pp and aur1Rp promoters, which direct the expression of auricin-specific cluster-situated regulators (CSRs), was also precocious and increased in the sagR mutant strain. In addition, SagR was also shown to specifically bind both promoters in vitro. These results indicated that the SagA–SagR GBL system regulates auricin production. Unlike many other GBL receptors, SagR does not bind its own promoter, but Aur1R, an auricin-specific repressor from the family of pseudo GBL receptors, does bind both sagAp and sagRp promoters. Moreover, the expression of both promoters was deregulated in an aur1R mutant, indicating that the SagA–SagR GBL system is regulated by a feedback mechanism involving the auricin-specific CSR Aur1R, which regulates downstream.