Yunjie Chang, PhD
December 01, 2020Numerous bacteria use a rotating flagellar motor to drive the cell body and swim in liquid medium or swarm on solid surfaces, movements essential for bacterial survival and pathogenicity. The bacterial flagellar motor converts the electrochemical potential difference across the cell membrane into mechanical work and can rotate in both counterclockwise and clockwise directions. Understanding how the flagellar motor generates torque and switches its rotation direction can reveal fundamental properties of the bacterial life cycle. Our work has utilized cryo-ET analysis and revealed: 1) that torque generation requires conformational change of the C-ring in the flagellar motor[1]; 2) the molecular mechanism for directional switching of the flagellar motor[2].
Transcript
WEBVTT Numerous bacteria use a rotating flagellar motor to drive the cell body and swim in liquid medium or swarm on solid surfaces, movements essential for bacterial survival and pathogenicity. The bacterial flagellar motor converts the electrochemical potential difference across the cell membrane into mechanical work and can rotate in both counterclockwise and clockwise directions. Understanding how the flagellar motor generates torque and switches its rotation direction can reveal fundamental properties of the bacterial life cycle. Our work has utilized cryo-ET analysis and revealed: 1) that torque generation requires conformational change of the C-ring in the flagellar motor[1]; 2) the molecular mechanism for directional switching of the flagellar motor[2]. NOTE language:En-US