FIGURE 4.

Regulatory model of V. cholerae virulence factors. The membrane proteins TcpH/TcpP and ToxS/ToxR receive external environmental stimuli and positively regulate the transcription of toxT gene. The synthesized ToxT acts as a transcription factor and regulates the transcription of downstream virulence factors. The movement of sodium ions through the sodium‐driven flagellum and respiratory chain seems to affect the transcription of toxT. Although not shown in the figure, there is a pathway in which the quorum signal is accepted by the sensor kinases CqsS and LuxQ, and influences the production of virulence factors by a multi‐step signaling cascade through LuxO. The involvement of these very complex genes controls the regulation of the expression of virulence factors such as cholera toxin and TCP. The figure was created based on previous studies (Krukonis et al., 2000; Ramamurthy et al., 2020; Zhu et al., 2002)