Switch-like Behavior in the Heme Receptor for Vibrio Vulnificus

Switch-like behavior and bistability are important features in gene regulatory networks, allowing cells to distinguish between changing environments and express certain genes only under the appropriate conditions. Vibrio vulnificus, an opportunistic Gram-negative marine pathogen, has iron as a limiting growth factor. When inside a human host, this bacteria utilizes heme as a source of iron, necessitating the ability to turn this heme acquisition system off and on in response to environmental pressures. As establishment of infection depends on V. vulnificus's ability to change from a marine to human environment, the ability to switch on the heme-intake system is an important part of establishment of initial infection. In particular, the protein HupA is a key part of the bacteria's heme importation complex, and is regulated primarily by a divergently transcribed protein, HupR. The dynamics of this regulation result in a genetic switch, allowing the bacteria to differentiate between high iron or high heme environments, determining which source of iron should be used. Bifurcation analysis of this network uncovers a saddle-node bifurcation, which encodes this switch-like behavior into the regulation of the heme transport system and allows different levels of expression for HupA depending on external concentrations of heme and iron. The influences of other parameters in this system are also investigated; in particular, promoter leakage is found to be required to enable this bistability, indicating the importance of imperfect regulation in a cell's ability to respond to the environment.