Mechanisms underlying the additive and redundant Qrr phenotypes in Vibrio harveyi and Vibrio cholerae

Vibrio harveyi and Vibrio cholerae regulate their virulence factors according to the local cell-population density in a regulatory system called quorum sensing. Their quorum sensing systems contain a small RNA (sRNA) circuit to regulate expression of a master transcriptional regulator via multiple quorum regulated RNA (Qrr) and a protein chaperon Hfq. Experiments and genetic analysis show that their respective quorum sensing networks are topologically equivalent and have homologous components, yet they respond differently to the same experimental conditions. In particular, V. harveyi Qrr are additive because all of its Qrr are required to maintain wild-type-like repression of its master transcriptional regulator. Conversely, V. cholerae Qrr are redundant because any of its Qrr is sufficient to repress its master transcriptional regulator. Given the striking similarities between their quorum sensing systems, experimentalists have been unable to identify conclusively the mechanisms behind these phenotypic differences. Nevertheless, the current hypothesis in the literature is that dosage compensation is the mechanism underlying redundancy. In this work, we identify the mechanisms underlying Qrr redundancy using a detailed mathematical model of the V. harveyi and V. cholerae sRNA circuits. We show that there are exactly two different cases underlying Qrr redundancy and that dosage compensation is unnecessary and insufficient to explain Qrr redundancy. Although V. harveyi Qrr are additive when the perturbations in Qrr are large, we predict that V. harveyi and V. cholerae Qrr are redundant when the perturbations in Qrr are small. We argue that the additive and redundant Qrr phenotypes can emerge from parametric differences in the sRNA circuit. In particular, we find that the affinity of Qrr and its expression relative to the master transcriptional regulator determine the level of redundancy in V. harveyi and V. cholerae. Furthermore, the additive and redundant Qrr phenotypes reflect differences in the concentration of Hfq-Qrr in V. harveyi and V. cholerae. We use our model to test the dosage compensation hypothesis and show that decreasing the expression of qrr, rather than removing dosage compensation, abolishes Qrr redundancy in V. cholerae. Further experimentation is needed to test our results and both Qrr redundancy hypotheses. •In general, there are two different criteria that cause Qrr redundancy.•Dosage compensation diminishes the more redundant the Qrr.•