Proteus mirabilis MrpJ ChIP-seq

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. Four types of P. mirabilis samples were sequenced:1) empty vector with no ChIP antibody (control); 2) pMrpJ (produces His-tagged MrpJ) with no ChIP antibody (control); 3) empty vector with anti-His ChIP (control) and 4) pMrpJ with anti-His ChIP (experimental sample). Two biological replicates were sequenced for each sample type, for a total of 8 samples.