The function of a regulatory gene, scrX related to differentiation in Streptomyces coelicolor

A new gene, scrX from Streptomyces coelicolor was cloned and sequenced. It consists of 660 base pair, encoding a peptide of 220 amino acids. There are three rare codons in scrX which are AAA, AAA and ATA. scrX gene may be a t ypical differentiation regulator which was strictly controlled at translati onal level. The comparison of amino acids also revealed that ScrX belonged to Ic1R family which acted in transcriptional regulation of prokaryote. Stu dies on gene function by gene disruption and complementation indicated that scrX may play a positive regulation role in spore formation of Streptomyce s coelicolor.