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.