Project description:Bacteria coordinate cellular behaviors using a cell-cell communication system termed quorum sensing. In Vibrio harveyi, the master quorum sensing transcriptional factor LuxR directly regulates >100 genes in response to changes in population density. Here, we show that LuxR derepresses quorum sensing loci by competing with H-NS, a global transcriptional repressor that oligomerizes on DNA to form filaments and bridges. We first identified H-NS as a repressor of bioluminescence gene expression, for which LuxR is a required activator. In an hns deletion strain, LuxR is no longer necessary for transcription activation of the bioluminescence genes, suggesting that the primary role of LuxR is to displace H-NS to derepress gene expression. Using RNA-seq and ChIP-seq, we determined that H-NS and LuxR co-regulate and co-occupy 28 promoters driving expression of 63 genes across the genome. ChIP-PCR assays show that as autoinducer concentration increases, LuxR protein accumulates at co-occupied promoters while H-NS protein disperses. LuxR is sufficient to evict H-NS from promoter DNA in vitro, which is dependent on LuxR DNA binding activity. From these findings, we propose a model in which LuxR serves as a counter-silencer at H-NS-repressed quorum sensing loci by disrupting H-NS nucleoprotein complexes that block transcription.
Project description:Bacteria coordinate cellular behaviors using a cell-cell communication system termed quorum sensing. In Vibrio harveyi, the master quorum sensing transcriptional factor LuxR directly regulates >100 genes in response to changes in population density. Here, we show that LuxR derepresses quorum sensing loci by competing with H-NS, a global transcriptional repressor that oligomerizes on DNA to form filaments and bridges. We first identified H-NS as a repressor of bioluminescence gene expression, for which LuxR is a required activator. In an hns deletion strain, LuxR is no longer necessary for transcription activation of the bioluminescence genes, suggesting that the primary role of LuxR is to displace H-NS to derepress gene expression. Using RNA-seq and ChIP-seq, we determined that H-NS and LuxR co-regulate and co-occupy 28 promoters driving expression of 63 genes across the genome. ChIP-PCR assays show that as autoinducer concentration increases, LuxR protein accumulates at co-occupied promoters while H-NS protein disperses. LuxR is sufficient to evict H-NS from promoter DNA in vitro, which is dependent on LuxR DNA binding activity. From these findings, we propose a model in which LuxR serves as a counter-silencer at H-NS-repressed quorum sensing loci by disrupting H-NS nucleoprotein complexes that block transcription.
Project description:Quorum sensing controls hundreds of genes in vibrios required for cell density-specific behaviors, including bioluminescence, biofilm formation, competence, secretion, and motility. The central regulator in the quorum sensing pathway in vibrios is LuxR/HapR, which directly regulates >100 genes in the 625-gene regulon of Vibrio harveyi. Among these directly regulated genes are 15 transcription factors, which we predicted would comprise the second tier in the hierarchy of the quorum sensing regulon. To better study the mechanism of regulation of the quorum sensing network, we mapped all transcriptional start sites in V. harveyi using dRNA-seq. From these data, we determined the relative position of LuxR binding sites in the promoters of genes directly regulated by LuxR. We confirmed that LuxR directly binds to the promoters of the genes encoding transcription factors and quantified the extent of LuxR activation or repression of transcript levels. Finally, we determined the individual regulons for a subset of transcription factors that have not been previously studied. For regulators such as LysR- or AsnC/Lrp-type transcription factors, the regulons contained >100 genes that contained both unique and overlapping genes with the LuxR regulon. These data support a model in which LuxR directly regulates other transcription factors, which act to further alter the second tier of the gene expression cascade producing cell density behaviors in V. harveyi.
Project description:LuxR is the master quorum sensing regulator in Vibrio harveyi. This transcription factor controls the expression of over 600 genes to coordinate group behaviors. In order to understand how LuxR regulates transcription we identified a co-regulator, integration host factor (IHF). In this study we performed RNA-seq to show that the LuxR and IHF regulons overlap significantly.
Project description:Many Gram-negative bacteria employ cell-to-cell communication mediated by N-acyl homoserine lactones (quorum sensing) to control expression of a wide range of genes including, but not limited to, genes encoding virulence factors. Outside the laboratory, the bacteria live in complex communities where signals may be perceived across species. We here present a newly found natural quorum sensing inhibitor, produced by the pseudomonads Pseudomonas sp. B13 and Pseudomonas reinekei MT1 as a blind end in the biodegradation of organochloride xenobiotics, which inhibits quorum sensing in P.M-bM-^@M-^Caeruginosa in naturally occurring concentrations. This catabolite, 4-methylenebut-2-en-4-olide, also known as protoanemonin, has been reported to possess antibacterial properties, but seems to have dual functions. Using transcriptomics and proteomics, we found that protoanemonin significantly reduced expression of genes and secretion of proteins known to be under control of quorum sensing in P.M-bM-^@M-^Caeruginosa. Moreover, we found activation of genes and gene products involved in iron starvation response. It is thus likely that inhibition of quorum sensing, as the production of antibiotics, is a phenomenon found in complex bacterial communities. Strain P. aeruginosa MPAO1 was cultivated under defined ABT medium. The orginal culture was divided in the early exponential phase into two parts. One was treated with 125M-NM-<M Protoanemonin and the other served as a control. The experiment was performed in duplicates.
Project description:Many Gram-negative bacteria employ cell-to-cell communication mediated by N-acyl homoserine lactones (quorum sensing) to control expression of a wide range of genes including, but not limited to, genes encoding virulence factors. Outside the laboratory, the bacteria live in complex communities where signals may be perceived across species. We here present a newly found natural quorum sensing inhibitor, produced by the pseudomonads Pseudomonas sp. B13 and Pseudomonas reinekei MT1 as a blind end in the biodegradation of organochloride xenobiotics, which inhibits quorum sensing in P. aeruginosa in naturally occurring concentrations. This catabolite, 4-methylenebut-2-en-4-olide, also known as protoanemonin, has been reported to possess antibacterial properties, but seems to have dual functions. Using transcriptomics and proteomics, we found that protoanemonin significantly reduced expression of genes and secretion of proteins known to be under control of quorum sensing in P. aeruginosa. Moreover, we found activation of genes and gene products involved in iron starvation response. It is thus likely that inhibition of quorum sensing, as the production of antibiotics, is a phenomenon found in complex bacterial communities.
Project description:Expression of virulence genes in pathogenic E. coli is controlled in part by the transcription silencer H-NS and its paralogs (e.g., StpA), which sequester DNA in multi-kb nucleoprotein filaments to inhibit transcription initiation, elongation, or both. Some activators counter-silence initiation by displacing H-NS from promoters. How H-NS inhibition of elongation is overcome is not understood. In uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC), elongation regulator RfaH aids expression of some H-NS-silenced pathogenicity operons (e.g., hlyCABD encoding hemolysin). RfaH associates with elongation complexes (ECs) via direct contacts to a transiently exposed, nontemplate DNA-strand sequence called ops (operon polarity suppressor). RfaH–ops interactions establish long-lived RfaH–EC contacts that allow RfaH to recruit ribosomes to the nascent mRNA and to suppress transcriptional pausing and termination. Using ChIP-seq, we mapped the genome-scale distributions of RfaH, H-NS, StpA, RNA polymerase (RNAP), and σ70 in the UPEC strain CFT073. We identify 8 RfaH-activated operons, all of which were bound by H-NS and StpA. Four are new additions to the RfaH regulon. Deletion of RfaH caused premature termination whereas deletion of H-NS and StpA allowed elongation without RfaH. Thus, RfaH is an elongation counter-silencer of H-NS. Consistent with elongation counter-silencing, deletion of StpA alone decreased the effect of RfaH. StpA increases DNA bridging, which inhibits transcript elongation via topological constraints on RNAP. Residual RfaH effect when both H-NS and StpA were deleted was attributable to targeting of RfaH-regulated operons by a minor H-NS paralog, Hfp. These operons have evolved higher levels of H-NS–binding features, explaining minor-paralog targeting.
Project description:Vibrio campbellii BB120 (ATCC BAA-1116, previously designated as Vibrio harveyi) is a fundamental model strain for studying population density-based cell-to-cell communication, known as quorum sensing, among gram-negative bacteria. In V. campbellii BB120, sensing of autoinducers at high cell densities activates the expression of the master transcriptional regulator, LuxR, which controls the expression of genes involved in group behaviors. Unlike BB120, the Vibrio campbellii environmental isolate DS40M4 was recently shown to be capable of natural transformation, a process by which bacteria take up exogenous DNA and incorporate it into their genome via homologous recombination. Here, we compare other phenotypes between DS40M4 and BB120. We find that DS40M4 has a faster growth rate and stronger type VI secretion-mediated cell killing, whereas BB120 forms more robust biofilms and is bioluminescent. We exploited the power of natural transformation to rapidly generate >30 mutant strains to explore the function of DS40M4-encoded homologs of the BB120 quorum-sensing system. Our results show that DS40M4 has a similar quorum-sensing circuit to BB120 but with three distinct differences: 1) DS40M4 lacks the canonical HAI-1 autoinducer LuxM synthase but has an active LuxN receptor, 2) the quorum regulatory small RNAs (Qrrs) are not solely regulated by autoinducer signaling through the response regulator LuxO, and 3) the DS40M4 LuxR regulon is <100 genes, which is relatively small compared to the >400 genes regulated in BB120. This work illustrates that DS40M4 is a tractable and relevant model strain for studying quorum-sensing phenotypes in Vibrio campbellii.