Transcription factor MrpC binds to promoter regions of hundreds of developmentally-regulated genes in Myxococcus xanthus

Table 5 Developmental genes associated with putative MrpC binding sites and the statistical significance relative to all genes

List^a	Number of listed genes	Putative MrpC sites	Expected^b	P-value^c
Directly involved	95	27	18	0.17
Down-regulated	424	96	80	0.20
Up-regulated	410	133	77	<0.0001
Potentially interesting	345	63	65	1.0
Potentially interesting promoter regions	207	54	39	0.10

^aGenes directly involved in fruiting body formation, down-regulated, or up-regulated are from Tables S3, S5, and S6, respectively, of Huntley et al. [58]. Potentially interesting genes are listed in Additional file 6. Potentially interesting promoter regions does not include genes likely to be in operons that are downstream of the first gene.
^bThe number expected was calculated by multiplying the number of listed genes by the ratio of putative MrpC binding sites near (i.e., between -400 and +100) the predicted start codon of a gene (i.e., 1393) to the total number of genes in the genome that have been assigned a functional category (i.e., 7379) [57].
^cThe P-value associated with the difference between the number of putative MrpC sites observed versus the number expected was calculated using Fisher’s exact test [56].

ISSN: 1471-2164