RNAseq of VP882 phage activation in V. cholerae

Many, if not all, bacteria use quorum sensing (QS) to control gene expression and collective behaviours, and more recently QS has also been discovered in bacteriophages (phages). Phages can produce communication molecules of their own, or “listen in” on the host’s communication processes, in order to switch between lytic and lysogenic modes of infection. In this project, we studied the interaction of Vibrio cholerae, the causative agent of cholera disease, with the lysogenic vibriophage VP882. The lytic cycle of VP882 is induced by the QS molecule DPO (3,5-dimethylpyrazin-2-ol), however, the global regulatory consequences of DPO-mediated VP882 activation have remained unclear. To investigate the transcriptional changes upon VP882 activation, V. cholerae ∆tdh + JSP-1269 (VP882::kanR) were cultivated in M9 medium to OD600 of 0.2 and VP882 phage was activated by 25 µM DPO and 0.035% arabinose to induce the lytic cycle. Cells were subjected to RNA-seq analysis. Three biological replicates for each condition are provided. To identify transcriptional start sites (TSS) of the VP882 phage, RNA samples of each time point were pooled and treated with terminator exonuclease to enrich primary transcripts.