BldD is a direct regulator of key developmental genes in Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2)

BldD is a transcription factor required for aerial hyphae formation in the filamentous bacterium Streptomyces coelicolor. Three targets of BldD regulation were discovered by a number of means, including examination of bld gene interdependence, selective enrichment of chromosomal DNA fragments bound by BldD and searching the promoter regions of known developmental genes for matches to a previously characterized BldD binding site. The three BldD targets identified were the developmental sigma factor genes, whiG and bldN, and a previously uncharacterized gene, designated bdtA, encoding a putative transcription factor. In each target gene, the sequences bound by BldD were characterized by electrophoretic mobility shift and DNase I footprinting assays, and their alignment suggested AGTgA (n)m TCACc as a consensus BldD operator. The in vivo effect of mutation in bldD on the expression of these three target genes was assessed using S1 nuclease protection assays. In each case, target gene expression was upregulated during early colony development in the bldD background, suggesting that, in the wild type, BldD acts to repress premature expression of whiG, bldN and bdtA during vegetative growth.