Regulation of Vibrio mimicus metalloprotease (VMP) production by the quorum-sensing master regulatory protein, LuxR El-Shaymaa Abdel-Sattar 1, 2, Shin-ichi Miyoshi 1 and Abdelaziz Elgaml 1, 3 * 1 Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama University, 1-1-1, Tsushima-Naka, Kita-Ku, Okayama 700-8530, Japan 2 Chemical Industries Development Company, Assiut 71511, Egypt 3 Microbiology and Immunology Department, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mansoura University, Elgomhouria Street, Mansoura 35516, Egypt * Correspondence: Corresponding author: Abdelaziz Elgaml Postal address: Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama University, 1-1-1, Tsushima-Naka, Kita-Ku, Okayama 700-8530, Japan Tel: +81-86-251-7968, Fax: +81-86-251-7926 E-mail:
[email protected] ;
[email protected] Running title: Regulation of V. mimicus metalloprotease by LuxR Key words: Vibrio mimicus; Metalloprotease; Quorum-sensing; LuxR protein 1 Abstract Vibrio mimicus is an estuarine bacterium, while it can cause severe diarrhea, wound infection and otitis media in humans. This pathogen secretes a relatively important toxin named V. mimicus metalloprotease (VMP). In this study, we clarified regulation of the VMP production according to the quorum-sensing master regulatory protein named LuxR. First, the full length of luxR gene, encoding LuxR, was detected in V. mimicus strain E-37, an environmental isolate. Next, the putative consensus binding sequence of LuxR protein could be detected in the upstream (promoter) region of VMP encoding gene, vmp. Finally, the effect of disruption of luxR gene on the expression of vmp and production of VMP was evaluated. Namely, the expression of vmp was significantly decreased by luxR disruption and the production of VMP was severely altered.