| Title | Regulator of ribonuclease activity modulates the pathogenicity of Vibrio vulnificus |
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| Author | Jaejin Lee1, Eunkyoung Shin1, Jaeyeong Park1, Minho Lee2, and Kangseok Lee1 |
| Address | 1Department of Life Science, Chung-Ang University, Seoul 06974, Republic of Korea, 2Department of Microbiology, College of Medicine, Hallym University, Chuncheon 24252, Republic of Korea |
| Bibliography | Journal of Microbiology, 59(12),1133–1141, 2021, |
| DOI | 10.1007/s12275-021-1518-5 |
| Key Words | RNase E, VvRraA1, virulence, pathogenicity, Vibrio vulnificus |
| Abstract | RraA, a protein regulator of RNase E activity, plays a unique role in modulating the mRNA abundance in Escherichia coli. The marine pathogenic bacterium Vibrio vulnificus also possesses homologs of RNase E (VvRNase E) and RraA (VvRraA1 and VvRraA2). However, their physiological roles have not yet been investigated. In this study, we demonstrated that VvRraA1 expression levels affect the pathogenicity of V. vulnificus. Compared to the wild-type strain, the VvrraA1-deleted strain (ΔVvrraA1) showed decreased motility, invasiveness, biofilm formation ability as well as virulence in mice; these phenotypic changes of ΔVvrraA1 were restored by the exogenous expression of VvrraA1. Transcriptomic analysis indicated that VvRraA1 expression levels affect the abundance of a large number of mRNA species. Among them, the halflives of mRNA species encoding virulence factors (e.g., smcR and htpG) that have been previously shown to affect VvrraA1 expression-dependent phenotypes were positively correlated with VvrraA1 expression levels. These findings suggest that VvRraA1 modulates the pathogenicity of V. vulnificus by regulating the abundance of a subset of mRNA species. |