Environmental DNA Fragment Conferring Early and Increased Sporulation and Antibiotic Production in <i>Streptomyces</i> Species

Abstract

Here we describe the rep gene, isolated from an environmental DNA library, which when transformed into Streptomyces species resulted in increased production of secondary metabolites and accelerated sporulation. We show that Streptomyces lividans strains bearing rep are particularly useful as expression hosts for heterologous antibiotic production.