FIGURE 3.

Mapping of cis-acting regulatory elements required for the vvpE expression. A, construction of vvpE-luxAB fusion pHS reporters. PCR fragments carrying the vvpE regulatory region with 10-bp substitutions (black boxes) were subcloned into pHK0011 (18) to create each pHS reporter. Solid lines, the vvpE upstream region; shaded blocks, the vvpE coding region; open blocks, the luxAB. The wild type vvpE regulatory region is shown on top with the proposed −10 and −35 regions, and the binding site for SmcR (SB). The reporter pHS201 that carries the wild type vvpE regulatory region was used as a positive control. B, cellular luminescences were determined from the stationary phase culture (A₆₀₀ = 2.0) of V. vulnificus containing each pHS reporter as indicated. The error bars represent the S.E.