UC Santa Cruz

Two-component signal transduction systems (TCSs), typically composed of a sensor histidine kinase (HK) and a response regulator (RR), are the primary mechanism by which pathogenic bacteria sense and respond to extracellular signals. The pathogenic bacterium Vibrio cholerae is no exception and harbors 52 RR genes. Using in-frame deletion mutants of each RR gene, we performed a systematic analysis of their role in V. cholerae biofilm formation. We determined that 7 RRs impacted the expression of an essential biofilm gene and found that the recently characterized RR, VxrB, regulates the expression of key structural and regulatory biofilm genes in V. choleraevxrB is part of a 5-gene operon, which contains the cognate HK vxrA and three genes of unknown function. Strains carrying ΔvxrA and ΔvxrB mutations are deficient in biofilm formation, while the ΔvxrC mutation enhances biofilm formation. The overexpression of VxrB led to a decrease in motility. We also observed a small but reproducible effect of the absence of VxrB on the levels of cyclic di-GMP (c-di-GMP). Our work reveals a new function for the Vxr TCS as a regulator of biofilm formation and suggests that this regulation may act through key biofilm regulators and the modulation of cellular c-di-GMP levels.IMPORTANCE Biofilms play an important role in the Vibrio cholerae life cycle, providing protection from environmental stresses and contributing to the transmission of V. cholerae to the human host. V. cholerae can utilize two-component systems (TCS), composed of a histidine kinase (HK) and a response regulator (RR), to regulate biofilm formation in response to external cues. We performed a systematic analysis of V. cholerae RRs and identified a new regulator of biofilm formation, VxrB. We demonstrated that the VxrAB TCS is essential for robust biofilm formation and that this system may regulate biofilm formation via its regulation of key biofilm regulators and cyclic di-GMP levels. This research furthers our understanding of the role that TCSs play in the regulation of V. cholerae biofilm formation.