Shrimp acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease (AHPND) is one of the most devastating diseases to impact the global shrimp farming industry, with a mortality rate of 70 %-100 %. The key virulence factors are a pair of Photorhabdus insect-related (Pir)-like toxins, PirAvp and PirBvp. In this study, by using an in vitro transcription and translation assay, we first confirmed that the quorum sensing transcriptional regulator AphBvp could trigger the expression of its downstream genes after binding to the AphBvp binding sequence in the promoter region of the pirAvp/pirBvp operon. Next, we showed that AphBvp was essential for the expression of these toxins by using an aphBvp-deletion mutant (ΔaphBvp) derived from the AHPND-causing Vibrio parahaemolyticus. Lastly, we discovered that the expression levels of PirAvp and PirBvp were up-regulated under acidic conditions (pH 4.5), and further showed that an acidic environment promoted the binding of AphBvp to the pirABvp promoter. We speculate that this was because the acidic environment favored the formation of AphBvp tetramers, which is important for binding to DNA. Taken together, these findings improve our understanding of the gene regulatory mechanisms of pirAvp and pirBvp, and suggest that the pH value of the environment might affect the virulence of AHPND-causing V. parahaemolyticus.
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