Proteus mirabilis biofilms and catheter-associated urinary tract infections.

Proteus mirabilis inhabits the environment and causes a number of infections including those of the skin, respiratory tract, wounds and urinary tract. These organisms express virulence factors associated with adhesion, motility, immunoavoidance, nutrient acquisition, host damage, as well as biofilm formation. P.

The high-affinity phosphate transporter Pst is a virulence factor for Proteus mirabilis during complicated urinary tract infection.

Proteus mirabilis is a ubiquitous bacterium associated with complicated urinary tract infection (UTI). Mutagenesis studies of the wild-type strain HI4320 in the CBA mouse model of ascending UTIs have identified attenuated mutants with transposon insertions in genes encoding the high-affinity phosphate transporter Pst (pstS, pstA). The transcription of the pst operon (pstSCAB-phoU) and other members of the phosphate regulon of Escherichia coli, including alkaline phosphatase (AP), are regulated by the two-component regulatory system PhoBR and are repressed until times of phosphate starvation.