Abstract
Vibrio parahaemolyticus expresses one major virulence determinant T6SS2, which is constituted into three putative operons, i.e., VPA1027-1024, VPA1043-1028, and VPA1044-1046. CalR, a LysR-type transcriptional regulator, was originally identified as a repressor of the swarming motility and T3SS1 gene expression. As shown in this study, CalR binds to the promoter-proximal region of each of the three operons to activate their transcription, and moreover, CalR activates the adhesion of V. parahaemolyticus to HeLa cells. In addition, competitive EMSAs demonstrated that CalR acts as an antagonist of H–NS in V. parahaemolyticus. Collectively, these studies confirmed a new physiological role for CalR in V. parahaemolyticus.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20160505), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31471184), and the Foundation of State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity of China (SKLPBS1517).
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Communicated by Djamel DRIDER.
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Zhang, L., Osei-Adjei, G., Zhang, Y. et al. CalR is required for the expression of T6SS2 and the adhesion of Vibrio parahaemolyticus to HeLa cells. Arch Microbiol 199, 931–938 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-017-1361-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-017-1361-6