Frontiers in Microbiology (Jan 2023)

Quorum sensing and QsvR tightly control the transcription of vpa0607 encoding an active RNase II-type protein in Vibrio parahaemolyticus

  • Yiquan Zhang,
  • Xingfan Xue,
  • Xingfan Xue,
  • Fengjun Sun,
  • Xue Li,
  • Miaomiao Zhang,
  • Miaomiao Zhang,
  • Qimin Wu,
  • Tingting Zhang,
  • Xi Luo,
  • Renfei Lu

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1123524
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14

Abstract

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Vibrio parahaemolyticus, a Gram-negative, halophilic bacterium, is a leading cause of acute gastroenteritis in humans. AphA and OpaR are the master quorum sensing (QS) regulators operating at low cell density (LCD) and high cell density (HCD), respectively. QsvR is an AraC-type protein that integrates into the QS system to control gene expression by directly controlling the transcription of aphA and opaR. However, the regulation of QsvR itself remains unclear to date. In this study, we show that vpa0607 and qsvR are transcribed as an operon, vpa0607-qsvR. AphA indirectly activates the transcription of vpa0607 at LCD, whereas OpaR and QsvR directly repress vpa0607 transcription at HCD, leading to the highest expression levels of vpa0607 occurs at LCD. Moreover, VPA0607 acts as an active RNase II-type protein in V. parahaemolyticus and feedback inhibits the expression of QsvR at the post-transcriptional level. Taken together, this work deepens our understanding of the regulation of QsvR and enriches the integration mechanisms of QsvR with the QS system in V. parahaemolyticus.

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