In prokaryotic genomes, the neighboring genes are often located on the complementary DNA strands and adjoin each other by their 5'- or 3'-ends, or even overlap with their open reading frames. It was suggested that this gene topology has a functional purpose of regulating their expression. For the genes that overlap by their coding 3'-end encoding regions, this assumption has not been confirmed experimentally. In a broad group of bacteria that belong to proteobacteria, this convergent gene arrangement is typical for functionally connected quorum sensing-related genes "I" and "R" which encode synthases of autoinducers, such as N-acyl homoserine lactones and their sensors, respectively. In the present study on the example of overlapping quorum sensing-related genes of plant pathogenic bacterium Pectobacterium atrosepticum SCRI1043, expI, and expR, it was shown that the topology of these genes determines the regulation of their expression.