Multicellular Development in Streptomyces

The colony structure and life cycle of the grampositive, soil‐dwelling bacterium Streptomyces coelicolor provide a fascinating exception to the view of bacteria as simple unicellular microorganisms. Mutations in genes involved in morphogenesis alter colony appearance but do not usually compromise viability. The majority of genes identified as being important for aerial hypha formation encode regulatory proteins; however, recent work has …