Flagellin Redundancy in Caulobacter crescentus and Its Implications for Flagellar Filament Assembly

  1. Lookup NU author(s)
  2. Alex Faulds-Pain
  3. Christopher Birchall
  4. Christine Aldridge
  5. Giulia Grimaldi
  6. Dr Joseph Gray
  7. Dr Phillip Aldridge
Author(s)Faulds-Pain A, Birchall C, Aldridge C, Smith WD, Grimaldi G, Nakamura S, Miyata T, Gray J, Li GL, Tang JX, Namba K, Minamino T, Aldridge PD
Publication type Article
JournalJournal of Bacteriology
Year2011
Volume193
Issue11
Pages2695-2707
ISSN (print)0021-9193
ISSN (electronic)1098-5530
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Bacterial flagella play key roles in surface attachment and host-bacterial interactions as well as driving motility. Here, we have investigated the ability of Caulobacter crescentus to assemble its flagellar filament from six flagellins: FljJ, FljK, FljL, FljM, FljN, and FljO. Flagellin gene deletion combinations exhibited a range of phenotypes from no motility or impaired motility to full motility. Characterization of the mutant collection showed the following: (i) that there is no strict requirement for any one of the six flagellins to assemble a filament; (ii) that there is a correlation between slower swimming speeds and shorter filament lengths in Delta fljK Delta fljM mutants; (iii) that the flagellins FljM to FljO are less stable than FljJ to FljL; and (iv) that the flagellins FljK, FljL, FljM, FljN, and FljO alone are able to assemble a filament.
PublisherAmerican Society for Microbiology
URLhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1128/JB.01172-10
DOI10.1128/JB.01172-10
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