Microbe Profile: Streptomyces venezuelae - a model species to study morphology and differentiation in filamentous bacteria.

Streptomyces bacteria are renowned for their multicellular lifestyle and production of bioactive molecules (natural products) with important applications in medicine, agriculture and industry. Studies of several Streptomyces species have provided a foundational understanding of their biology and metabolism. However, investigating the spatiotemporal processes governing the morphogenesis and development of these remarkable bacteria has been technically challenging due to their complex life cycle. The adoption of Streptomyces venezuelae as a new experimental model species has overcome these limitations and opened the door to fully explore the regulation and cell biology of Streptomyces development. A key advantage of S. venezuelae is its ability to complete its entire life cycle in liquid culture, facilitating the effective use of genome-wide analysis techniques and advanced cell biology approaches. This has provided significant new insights into the regulatory networks and molecular mechanisms underlying Streptomyces growth, division, developmental transitions and genome organization.