Comparative study of the N-terminal hydrophilic region in Streptomyces lividans and E. coli FtsY

Streptomyces lividans FtsY (SlFtsY) was cloned and overexpressed in Escherichia coli. Analysis of the amino acid (aa) sequence showed a concentration of hydrophilic aa's in the N-terminal half region of SlFtsY as observed in that of E. coli FtsY (EcFtsY). However, the length of the hydrophilic region was shorter in SlFtsY than in EcFtsY. Overexpression of SlFtsY in E. coli resulted in growth suppression as in the case of the overexpression of EcFtsY, while growth suppression as a result of the overexpression of the C-terminal half region of SlFtsY was limited. This result suggests that the N-terminal hydrophilic region of SlFtsY, regardless of its short length, would behave like its counterpart region of EcFtsY in E. coli.