H-NS Silences Gene Expression of LeuO, the Master Regulator of the Cyclic(Phe-Pro)-dependent Signal Pathway, in Vibrio vulnificus

The histone-like nucleoid structuring protein (H-NS) is an abundant global regulator of environmentally controlled gene expression. Herein, we demonstrate that H-NS represses the expression of LeuO, the master regulator of the cyclic(Phe-Pro)-dependent signaling pathway, by directly binding to the upstream region of the gene. H-NS binds to a long stretched region (more than 160-bp long), which overlaps with binding sites for ToxR and LeuO. A high quantity of H-NS outcompetes ToxR for binding to the cis-acting element of leuO . However, our footprinting analyses suggests that the binding of H-NS is relatively weaker than LeuO or ToxR at the same molarity. Considering that the DNA nucleotide sequences of the upstream regions of leuO genes are highly conserved among various Vibrio , such patterns as those found in V. vulnificus would be a common feature in the regulation of leuO gene expression in Vibrionaceae. Taken together, these results suggest that, in species belonging to Vibrionaceae, H-NS regulates the expression of leuO as a basal stopper when cFP-ToxR mediated signaling is absent.