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. 2021 Jun 1;59(7):651–657. doi: 10.1007/s12275-021-0629-3

The quorum sensing regulator OpaR is a repressor of polar flagellum genes in Vibrio parahaemolyticus

Renfei Lu 1, Junfang Sun 1, Yue Qiu 3, Miaomiao Zhang 3, Xingfan Xue 3, Xue Li 1, Wenhui Yang 4, Dongsheng Zhou 4, Lingfei Hu 4,✉, Yiquan Zhang 2,3,✉
PMCID: PMC8167305  PMID: 34061340

Abstract

Vibrio parahaemolyticus possesses two types of flagella: a single polar flagellum (Pof) for swimming and the peritrichous lateral flagella (Laf) for swarming. Expression of Laf genes has previously been reported to be regulated by the quorum sensing (QS) regulators AphA and OpaR. In the present study, we showed that OpaR, the QS regulator at high cell density (HCD), acted as a negative regulator of swimming motility and the transcription of Pof genes in V. parahaemolyticus. OpaR bound to the promoter-proximal DNA regions of flgAMN, flgMN, and flgBCDEFGHIJ within the Pof gene loci to repress their transcription, whereas it negatively regulates the transcription of flgKL-flaC in an indirect manner. Thus, this work investigated how QS regulated the swimming motility via direct action of its master regulator OpaR on the transcription of Pof genes in V. parahaemolyticus.

Keywords: Vibrio parahaemolyticus, polar flagellum, quorum sensing, OpaR

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Postdoctoral Science Foundation Funded Project of Jiangsu Province (Grant No. 2020Z102), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82072239) and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 2020M681513).

Conflict of Interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.

Contributor Information

Lingfei Hu, Email: huling03@163.com.

Yiquan Zhang, Email: zhangyiquanq@163.com.

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