Characterizing Mutants in the Self Versus Non-Self Recognition Pathway in Proteus mirabilis

Proteus mirabilis, a mobile gram-negative bacterium, is an opportunistic pathogen that causes urinary tract infections.  Upon meeting a solid surface, P. mirabilis short cells differentiate into swarmer cells; these swarmer cell migrate rapidly across the surface, exhibiting a behavior termed swarming. Swarming requires cell-to-cell contact and communication.  When identical swarms meet, they merge; however, boundaries form between non-identical swarms of P. mirabilis indicating that the bacterium can recognize self versus non-self. To investigate pathways that may be involved in self versus non-self recognition, P. mirabilis mutants that were previously identified to be deficient in self versus non-self recognition were swarmed against each other to determine their relationship with each other. Cluster analysis of the mutant strains revealed four different groups. We are currently mapping the location of the disrupted genes and will next complement the disrupted genes with the wild-type alleles. These identified genes may be novel members of the self versus non-self recognition pathway in P. mirabilis.