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Description (originally from EcoCyc^[1]) Flagellum

Comments (originally from EcoCyc^[1]) The flagellum is a molecular machine with a proton motive force driven rotary motor which rotates a long, curved filament allowing the cell to swim in a liquid environment. Some of the evidence for the structure and function of the flagellum comes from experiments involving Salmonella typhiumurium flagella; however, this evidence is generally believed to apply to the homologous system in E. coli as well.

The three major components of the flagellum are the basal body located within the membranes, and the hook and filament which extend from the basal body outward. The basal body contains the Flagellar Motor Complex and the Flagellar Export Apparatus. The hook is a polymer of FlgE proteins connected to the rod of the basal body. The filament is a polymer of FliC proteins joined to the hook by the FlgK and FlgL hook-filament junction proteins and capped by the filament capping protein, FliD.

The FlgE subunits form 11 parallel rows or protofilaments on the hook's cylindrical surface. Two hook filament junction proteins, FlgK and FlgL, join the hook to the filament ^{[2][3][4][5][6][2][7][8][9][9][10][11]}.

References

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} EcoCyc (release 11.1; 2007) Keseler, IM et al. (2005) Nucleic Acids Res. 33(Database issue):D334-7
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Berg HC (2003) The rotary motor of bacterial flagella. Annu Rev Biochem 72: 19-54 PubMed EcoliWiki page
3. ↑ Fraser GM et al. (1999) Substrate-specific binding of hook-associated proteins by FlgN and FliT, putative chaperones for flagellum assembly. Mol Microbiol 32: 569-80 PubMed EcoliWiki page
4. ↑ Bennett JC et al. (2001) Substrate complexes and domain organization of the Salmonella flagellar export chaperones FlgN and FliT. Mol Microbiol 39: 781-91 PubMed EcoliWiki page
5. ↑ Kutsukake K et al. (1994) Isolation and characterization of FliK-independent flagellation mutants from Salmonella typhimurium. J Bacteriol 176: 7625-9 PubMed EcoliWiki page
6. ↑ Hasegawa K et al. (1998) Quasi- and nonequivalence in the structure of bacterial flagellar filament. Biophys J 74: 569-75 PubMed EcoliWiki page
7. ↑ Samatey FA et al. (2001) Structure of the bacterial flagellar protofilament and implications for a switch for supercoiling. Nature 410: 331-7 PubMed EcoliWiki page
8. ↑ Maki S et al. (1998) Plugging interactions of HAP2 pentamer into the distal end of flagellar filament revealed by electron microscopy. J Mol Biol 277: 771-7 PubMed EcoliWiki page
9. ↑ ^{9.0 9.1} Yonekura K et al. (2000) The bacterial flagellar cap as the rotary promoter of flagellin self-assembly. Science 290: 2148-52 PubMed EcoliWiki page
10. ↑ Maki-Yonekura S et al. (2003) Domain movements of HAP2 in the cap-filament complex formation and growth process of the bacterial flagellum. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 100: 15528-33 PubMed EcoliWiki page
11. ↑ Minamino T & Namba K (2004) Self-assembly and type III protein export of the bacterial flagellum. J Mol Microbiol Biotechnol 7: 5-17 PubMed EcoliWiki page