Abstract:Vibrio parahaemolyticus is one of the important food-borne pathogens in coastal areas, and the problem of drug resistance of this bacterium is becoming more and more serious, it is urgent to develop safe, effective bacteriostatic agents with new action sites. In this paper, the effect of cell wall deletion on the biological characteristics of V. parahaemolyticus was studied with the cell wall as a potential target and cinnamyl alcohol as a bacteriostatic agent. The position and mode of the inhibition of cinnamyl alcohol on the bacteria were explored by measuring the changes in the minimal inhibitory concentration, growth curve, cell membrane integrity, inner membrane permeability and outer membrane protein competition test, and obtained dewalled cells were verified by drug sensitivity tests. The results showed that the cell wall deletion reduced the MIC of cinnamyl alcohol to V. parahaemolyticus to 1/8 of the untreated group. Cinnamyl alcohol has a strong inhibitory effect on V. parahaemolyticus in different states, which could cause cell membrane damage and cause intracellular characteristic macromolecular leakage. Colistin sulfate and wall removal could make cinnamyl alcohol lose its target. The outer membrane protein competition test further confirmed that cinnamyl alcohol could interact with outer membrane proteins. The de-walling treatment made the antibiotics that had been acting on the cell wall ineffective, indicating that the de-walling operation was done correctly. Conclusion: Cinnamyl alcohol can act on the cell membrane and outer membrane of V. parahaemolyticus, which may be targeted to the outer membrane protein. The outer membrane is the first barrier for small molecules to enter the Gram-negative bacteria and can be used as a new target for the development of bacteriostatic agents.