An atlas of the binding specificities of transcription factors in Pseudomonas aeruginosa directs prediction of novel regulators in virulence

A high-throughput systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment assay was applied to 371 putative TFs in P. aeruginosa, which resulted in the robust enrichment of 199 sequence motifs describing the binding specificities of 182 TFs. By scanning the genome, we predicted in total 33,709 significant interactions between TFs and their target loci, which were more than 11-fold enriched in the intergenic regions but depleted in the gene body regions. To further explore and delineate the physiological and pathogenic roles of TFs in P. aeruginosa, we constructed regulatory networks for nine major virulence-associated pathways, and found that 51 TFs were potentially significantly associated with these virulence pathways, 32 of which had not been characterized before, and some were even involved in multiple pathways. These results will significantly facilitate future studies on transcriptional regulation in P. aeruginosa and other relevant pathogens, and accelerate to discover effective treatment and prevention strategies for the associated infectious diseases.