IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v8y2017i1d10.1038_ncomms14276.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Identical folds used for distinct mechanical functions of the bacterial flagellar rod and hook

Author

Listed:
  • Takashi Fujii

    (Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University
    Riken Quantitative Biology Center)

  • Takayuki Kato

    (Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University)

  • Koichi D. Hiraoka

    (Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University)

  • Tomoko Miyata

    (Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University)

  • Tohru Minamino

    (Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University)

  • Fabienne F. V. Chevance

    (University of Utah)

  • Kelly T. Hughes

    (University of Utah)

  • Keiichi Namba

    (Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University
    Riken Quantitative Biology Center)

Abstract

The bacterial flagellum is a motile organelle driven by a rotary motor, and its axial portions function as a drive shaft (rod), a universal joint (hook) and a helical propeller (filament). The rod and hook are directly connected to each other, with their subunit proteins FlgG and FlgE having 39% sequence identity, but show distinct mechanical properties; the rod is straight and rigid as a drive shaft whereas the hook is flexible in bending as a universal joint. Here we report the structure of the rod and comparison with that of the hook. While these two structures have the same helical symmetry and repeat distance and nearly identical folds of corresponding domains, the domain orientations differ by ∼7°, resulting in tight and loose axial subunit packing in the rod and hook, respectively, conferring the rigidity on the rod and flexibility on the hook. This provides a good example of versatile use of a protein structure in biological organisms.

Suggested Citation

  • Takashi Fujii & Takayuki Kato & Koichi D. Hiraoka & Tomoko Miyata & Tohru Minamino & Fabienne F. V. Chevance & Kelly T. Hughes & Keiichi Namba, 2017. "Identical folds used for distinct mechanical functions of the bacterial flagellar rod and hook," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 8(1), pages 1-10, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms14276
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms14276
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms14276
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms14276?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ashley L. Nord & Anaïs Biquet-Bisquert & Manouk Abkarian & Théo Pigaglio & Farida Seduk & Axel Magalon & Francesco Pedaci, 2022. "Dynamic stiffening of the flagellar hook," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms14276. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.