The DNA-binding network of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Abstract

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) infects 30% of all humans and kills someone every 20-30 s. Here we report genome-wide binding for ∼80% of all predicted MTB transcription factors (TFs), and assayed global expression following induction of each TF. The MTB DNA-binding network consists of ∼16,000 binding events from 154 TFs. We identify >50 TF-DNA consensus motifs and >1,150 promoter-binding events directly associated with proximal gene regulation. An additional ∼4,200 binding events are in promoter windows and represent strong candidates for direct transcriptional regulation under appropriate environmental conditions. However, we also identify >10,000 dormant'DNA-binding events that cannot be linked directly with proximal transcriptional control, suggesting that widespread DNA binding may be a common feature that should be considered when developing global models of coordinated gene expression.