Structural insights into flagellar stator–rotor interactions

eLife

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[1] Department of Microbial Pathogenesis, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, United States;Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University, Greenville, United States;Department of Microbial Pathogenesis, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, United States;Microbial Sciences Institute, Yale University, West Haven, United States;Department of Microbial Pathogenesis, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, United States;Microbial Sciences Institute, Yale University, West Haven, United States;Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, McGovern Medical School at University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, United States;Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University, Greenville, United States;Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, McGovern Medical School at University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, United States;Microbial Sciences Institute, Yale University, West Haven, United States;Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, McGovern Medical School at University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, United States;

关键词: bacterial flagella;    nanomachine;    motility;    spirochete;    protein-protein interaction;    Other;   

DOI  :  10.7554/eLife.48979

来源: publisher

【 摘 要 】

10.7554/eLife.48979.001The bacterial flagellar motor is a molecular machine that can rotate the flagellar filament at high speed. The rotation is generated by the stator–rotor interaction, coupled with an ion flux through the torque-generating stator. Here we employed cryo-electron tomography to visualize the intact flagellar motor in the Lyme disease spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi. By analyzing the motor structures of wild-type and stator-deletion mutants, we not only localized the stator complex in situ, but also revealed the stator–rotor interaction at an unprecedented detail. Importantly, the stator–rotor interaction induces a conformational change in the flagella C-ring. Given our observation that a non-motile mutant, in which proton flux is blocked, cannot generate the similar conformational change, we propose that the proton-driven torque is responsible for the conformational change required for flagellar rotation.

【 授权许可】

CC BY