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Investigating Flagella-Driven Motility in Escherichia coli by Applying Three Established Techniques in a Series
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Bacterial flagella grow through an injection-diffusion mechanism.

Thibaud T Renault1,2, Anthony O Abraham3, Tobias Bergmiller4

  • 1Junior Research Group, Infection Biology of <italic>Salmonella</italic>, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig, Germany.

Elife
|March 7, 2017
PubMed
Summary

Bacterial flagellum growth is driven by an injection-diffusion mechanism, not a chain process. This explains how these protein filaments elongate outside cells without an obvious energy source.

Keywords:
Salmonella entericabacterial flagellumbiophysicscontinuous-flow immunostaininginfectious diseaseinjection-diffusion mechanismmicrobiologyproton motive forcestructural biology

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Area of Science:

  • Microbiology
  • Molecular Biology
  • Biophysics

Background:

  • The bacterial flagellum is a complex nanomachine essential for motility.
  • Flagellar filaments are assembled extracellularly from thousands of flagellin protein subunits.
  • The mechanism of flagellar growth outside the cell, lacking a direct energy source, remains poorly understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To elucidate the molecular mechanism governing bacterial flagellar filament elongation.
  • To investigate the dynamics of flagellum assembly in real-time.
  • To determine the contribution of different mechanisms to filament growth.

Main Methods:

  • In situ labeling and real-time immunostaining of elongating flagellar filaments.
  • Monitoring flagellum growth rates at the subunit level.
  • Inhibition of the proton motive force-dependent export apparatus.

Main Results:

  • Flagellum growth rate decreases with filament length, starting at ~1,700 amino acids/sec.
  • The previously proposed chain mechanism does not significantly contribute to filament elongation.
  • Substrate injection plays a major role in driving flagellar filament elongation.

Conclusions:

  • Bacterial flagellar growth is controlled by a simple injection-diffusion mechanism.
  • This mechanism explains extracellular filament assembly without an apparent external energy source.
  • The findings provide fundamental insights into bacterial self-assembly and motility.