Project description:Proteus mirabilis is a leading cause of catheter-associated urinary tract infections (UTIs) and urolithiasis. The transcriptional regulator MrpJ inversely modulates two critical aspects of P. mirabilis UTI progression: fimbria-mediated attachment to the urinary tract, and flagella-mediated motility. Chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by high-throughput sequencing (ChIP-seq) was used for the first time in a CAUTI pathogen to probe for in vivo direct targets of MrpJ. ChIP-seq revealed 81 78 direct MrpJ targets, including genes for motility, fimbriae and a type VI secretion system (T6SS), and the putative MrpJ binding sequence ACnCnnnnnnnGnGT.
Project description:Individual cells of the bacterium Proteus mirabilis can elongate up to 40- fold on surfaces before engaging in a cooperative surface-based motility termed swarming. How cells regulate this dramatic morphological remodeling remains an open question. In this paper, we move forward the understanding of this regulation by demonstrating that P. mirabilis requires the gene rffG for swarmer cell elongation and subsequent swarm motility.
