Structural insights into flagellar stator-- rotor interactions

ECU Author/Contributor (non-ECU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)

Yunjie,Moon,Ki Hwan,Zhao,Xiaowei,Norris,Steven J,Motaleb,MD A,Liu Chang (Creator)

Institution

East Carolina University (ECU )

Web Site: http://www.ecu.edu/lib/

Abstract: The bacterial flagellar motor is a molecular machine that can rotate the flagellarfilament at high speed. The rotation is generated by the stator--rotor interaction, coupled with anion flux through the torque-generating stator. Here we employed cryo-electron tomography tovisualize the intact flagellar motor in the Lyme disease spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi. Byanalyzing the motor structures of wild-type and stator-deletion mutants, we not only localized thestator 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 generatethe similar conformational change, we propose that the proton-driven torque is responsible for theconformational change required for flagellar rotation.

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Other

Language: English

Date: 2019

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