Surface hydrophobicity and roughness influences the morphology and biochemistry of streptomycetes during attached growth and differentiation.

Streptomycetes, soil-dwelling mycelial bacteria, can colonise surface of organic soil debris and soil particles. We analysed the effects of two different inert surfaces, glass and zirconia/silica, on the growth and antibiotic production in Streptomyces granaticolor. The surfaces used were in the form of microbeads and were surrounded by liquid growth media. Following the production of the antibiotic granaticin, more biomass was formed as well as a greater amount of antibiotic per milligram of protein on the glass beads than on the zirconia/silica beads. Comparison of young mycelium (6 h) proteomes, obtained from the cultures attached to the glass and zirconia/silica beads, revealed three proteins with altered expression levels (dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase, amidophosphoribosyltransferase and cystathionine beta-synthase) and one unique protein (glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase) that was present only in cells grown on glass beads. All of the identified proteins function primarily as cytoplasmic enzymes involved in different parts of metabolism; however, in several microorganisms, they are exposed on the cell surface and have been shown to be involved in adhesion or biofilm formation.