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Investigating Flagella-Driven Motility in Escherichia coli by Applying Three Established Techniques in a Series
Published on: May 10, 2020
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Variability in bacterial flagella re-growth patterns after breakage.
Guillaume Paradis1, Fabienne F V Chevance2, Willisa Liou2
1Department of Physics, Engineering Physics and Optics and Centre of Optics, Photonics and Lasers, Laval University, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.
Scientific Reports
|April 30, 2017
Summary
Bacterial flagellar filaments can regrow after breaking if damaged by mechanical shearing. However, filaments broken by precise laser pulses do not regrow, indicating breakage method is crucial for flagellar filament repair.
Area of Science:
- Microbiology
- Cell Biology
- Biophysics
Background:
- Bacteria utilize flagella for motility, involving complex protein assembly.
- Flagellar filaments are assembled from subunits polymerized at the tip.
- Filament assembly is a significant cellular energy investment.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if bacterial flagellar filaments can regrow after breakage.
- To determine the conditions necessary for flagellar filament reassembly.
- To understand the mechanism of flagellar filament repair.
Main Methods:
- Mechanical shearing to induce filament breakage.
- Sequential 3-color fluorescent labeling for visualizing regrowth.
- Differential electron microscopy to observe cap formation.
- Ultrashort laser pulses for localized filament damage.
Main Results:
- Flagellar filaments successfully regrew after mechanical shearing.
- New cap structures formed on broken filaments, enabling regrowth.
- Filaments broken by laser pulses did not exhibit regrowth.
- Regrowth is dependent on the nature of the filament breakage.
Conclusions:
- Bacterial flagellar filaments possess the capacity for regrowth after mechanical damage.
- The ability to regrow is contingent upon the method of filament breakage.
- This finding has implications for understanding bacterial motility and survival in natural environments.
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