Functional Analysis of the GlcP Promoter in Streptomyces peucetius var. caesius

In Streptomyces, carbon utilization is of significant importance for the expression of genes involved in morphological differentiation and antibiotic production. Glucose is mainly transported by GlcP, a membrane protein encoded by glcp. In Streptomyces coelicolor, this protein is encoded by sco5578. However, there is little information about the physiology of the GlcP promoter in Streptomyces. The aim of the present work was to clone and perform a functional analysis of the sp7066 promoter (ortholog of sco5578) from Streptomyces peucetius var. caesius. Hydrophobicity and cellular location analysis of the putative amino acid sequence of the cloned gene predicted SP7066 would be a membrane protein with a topology of six plus six transmembrane segments interrupted by a large cytoplasmic loop. In silico analysis of the upstream region of the sp7066 transcription initiation site predicted the sequences 5'-AGGAATAGT-3' and 5'-TTGACT-3' for regions -10 and -35 of sp7066 promoter. To reflect sp7066 expression, the promoter sequence was amplified, subcloned, and fused to the egfp reporter gene. Immunoblot analysis revealed that D-glucose and its analog 2-deoxyglucose were able to induce sp7066 expression. This effect was not modified by the presence of equimolar concentrations of D-galactose or N-acetylglucosamine. No expression of egfp was detected with the use of other carbon sources such as L-arabinose, D-fructose, and glycerol. Based on these analyses, we conclude that D-glucose is a preferred carbon source in S. peucetius var. caesius and that the sp7066 expression product, a putative non-PTS glucose permease, likely is a H+/symporter, localized to the membrane, and shows a strong specificity for D-glucose for inducing expression.