Role of the Umo proteins and the Rcs phosphorelay in the swarming motility of the wild type and an O-antigen (waaL) mutant of Proteus mirabilis.

Proteus mirabilis is a Gram-negative bacterium that exists as a short rod when grown in liquid medium, but during growth on surfaces it undergoes a distinct physical and biochemical change that culminates in the formation of a swarmer cell. How P. mirabilis senses a surface is not fully understood; however, the inhibition of flagellar rotation and accumulation of putrescine have been proposed to be sensory mechanisms. Our lab recently isolated a transposon insertion in waaL, encoding O-antigen ligase, that resulted in a loss of swarming but not swimming motility. The waaL mutant failed to activate flhDC, the class 1 activator of the flagellar gene cascade, when grown on solid surfaces. Swarming in the waaL mutant was restored by overexpression of flhDC in trans or by a mutation in the response regulator rcsB. To further investigate the role of the Rcs signal transduction pathway and its possible relationship with O-antigen surface sensing, mutations were made in the rcsC, rcsB, rcsF, umoB (igaA), and umoD genes in wild-type and waaL backgrounds. Comparison of the swarming phenotypes of the single and double mutants and of strains overexpressing combinations of the UmoB, UmoD, and RcsF proteins demonstrated the following: (i) there is a differential effect of RcsF and UmoB on swarming in wild-type and waaL backgrounds, (ii) RcsF inhibits UmoB activity but not UmoD activity in a wild-type background, and (iii) UmoD is able to modulate activity of the Rcs system.