Amplification and Bioinformatics Analysis of h-ns Gene of Vibrio alginolyticus

[Objectives] To amplify the h-ns gene of Vibrio alginolyticus and analyze it by bioinformatics. [Methods] According to the h-ns gene sequence of V. alginolyticus HY9901, a pair of specific primers were designed and amplified by PCR. [Results] The h-ns gene was 408 bp in length and 135 amino acids were encoded. The predicted theoretical protein molecular weight was about 14.98 kD, and the isoelectric point was 4.99. Protein subcellular localization, SignalP 5.0, TMHMM Server 2.0 and SoftBerry-Psite predictions showed that H-NS was located outside the cell membrane, and the protein was unstable and hydrophobic. There was no signal peptide cleavage site, no transmembrane region and no KEGG metabolic pathway. The amino acid sequence contained three phosphorylation sites, one N-terminal myristoylation site and three microsomal C-terminal target signal sites. Using MEGA 5.0, H-NS phylogenetic tree was constructed by ortho-connection method. The results showed that H-NS of V. alginolyticus was closer to H-NS of Vibrio diabolicus. Using SWISS-MODEL, the three-dimensional structure model of H-NS subunit was simulated, which was similar to the crystal structure of Salmonella typhimurium H-NS1-83. [Conclusions] This study lays a foundation for exploring the regulation mechanism of V. alginolyticus H-NS protein on bacterial virulence in the future.