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Characterization of the Flagellar Collar Reveals Structural Plasticity Essential for Spirochete Motility

Spirochetes are a remarkable group of bacteria with distinct morphology and periplasmic flagella that enable motility in viscous environments, such as host connective tissues. The collar, a spirochete-specific complex of the periplasmic flagellum, is required for this unique spirochete motility, yet...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Chang, Yunjie, Xu, Hui, Motaleb, Md A., Liu, Jun
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Society for Microbiology 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8609358/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34809456
http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mBio.02494-21
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author Chang, Yunjie
Xu, Hui
Motaleb, Md A.
Liu, Jun
author_facet Chang, Yunjie
Xu, Hui
Motaleb, Md A.
Liu, Jun
author_sort Chang, Yunjie
collection PubMed
description Spirochetes are a remarkable group of bacteria with distinct morphology and periplasmic flagella that enable motility in viscous environments, such as host connective tissues. The collar, a spirochete-specific complex of the periplasmic flagellum, is required for this unique spirochete motility, yet it has not been clear how the collar assembles and enables spirochetes to transit between complex host environments. Here, we characterize the collar complex in the Lyme disease spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi. We discover as well as delineate the distinct functions of two novel collar proteins, FlcB and FlcC, by combining subtractive bioinformatic, genetic, and cryo-electron tomography approaches. Our high-resolution in situ structures reveal that the multiprotein collar has a remarkable structural plasticity essential not only for assembly of flagellar motors in the highly curved membrane of spirochetes but also for generation of the high torque necessary for spirochete motility.
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spelling pubmed-86093582021-12-02 Characterization of the Flagellar Collar Reveals Structural Plasticity Essential for Spirochete Motility Chang, Yunjie Xu, Hui Motaleb, Md A. Liu, Jun mBio Research Article Spirochetes are a remarkable group of bacteria with distinct morphology and periplasmic flagella that enable motility in viscous environments, such as host connective tissues. The collar, a spirochete-specific complex of the periplasmic flagellum, is required for this unique spirochete motility, yet it has not been clear how the collar assembles and enables spirochetes to transit between complex host environments. Here, we characterize the collar complex in the Lyme disease spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi. We discover as well as delineate the distinct functions of two novel collar proteins, FlcB and FlcC, by combining subtractive bioinformatic, genetic, and cryo-electron tomography approaches. Our high-resolution in situ structures reveal that the multiprotein collar has a remarkable structural plasticity essential not only for assembly of flagellar motors in the highly curved membrane of spirochetes but also for generation of the high torque necessary for spirochete motility. American Society for Microbiology 2021-11-23 /pmc/articles/PMC8609358/ /pubmed/34809456 http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mBio.02494-21 Text en Copyright © 2021 Chang et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Research Article
Chang, Yunjie
Xu, Hui
Motaleb, Md A.
Liu, Jun
Characterization of the Flagellar Collar Reveals Structural Plasticity Essential for Spirochete Motility
title Characterization of the Flagellar Collar Reveals Structural Plasticity Essential for Spirochete Motility
title_full Characterization of the Flagellar Collar Reveals Structural Plasticity Essential for Spirochete Motility
title_fullStr Characterization of the Flagellar Collar Reveals Structural Plasticity Essential for Spirochete Motility
title_full_unstemmed Characterization of the Flagellar Collar Reveals Structural Plasticity Essential for Spirochete Motility
title_short Characterization of the Flagellar Collar Reveals Structural Plasticity Essential for Spirochete Motility
title_sort characterization of the flagellar collar reveals structural plasticity essential for spirochete motility
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8609358/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34809456
http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mBio.02494-21
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