The Lon protease regulates swarming motility and virulence gene expression in Proteus mirabilis

Abstract

A mini-Tn5lacZ1 transposon insertion in a gene encoding an orthologue of the Lon protease conferred a hyper-swarming phenotype on Proteus mirabilis. The lon mutation increased the accumulation of mRNA for representative class 1 (flhDC), class 2 (fliA) and class 3 (flaA) genes during swarmer cell differentiation. In addition, the stability of the FlhD protein was fourfold higher in the lon : : mini-Tn5lacZ1 background. Expression of a single-copy lon : : lacZ fusion increased during the swarming cycle and reached peak levels of expression at a point just after swarmer cell differentiation had initiated. In liquid media, a condition normally non-permissive for swarming, the lon : : mini-Tn5lacZ1 insertion resulted in motile, highly elongated cells that overexpressed flagellin. Finally, the lon : : mini-Tn5lacZ1 mutation was shown to result in increased expression of the hpmBA and zapA virulence genes during swarmer cell differentiation.