Broth-cultured vs swarming-phase P. mirabilis

Swarming motility by the urinary tract pathogen Proteus mirabilis has been a long-studied, but little understood phenomenon. On agar, a P. mirabilis colony grows outward in a bullseye pattern formed by consecutive waves of rapid swarming followed by consolidation into shorter cells. To examine differential gene expression in these growth phases, a microarray, constructed based on the completed genome sequence and annotation, was undertaken. RNA from 1) broth-cultured, or 2) swarming cells was extracted to assess transcription during each of these growth states. Five independent arrays (biological replicates) were analyzed for broth-cultured versus swarming P. mirabilis HI4320.