Complete atomic model of the bacterial flagellar filament by electron cryomicroscopy

Nature. 2003 Aug 7;424(6949):643-50. doi: 10.1038/nature01830.

Abstract

The bacterial flagellar filament is a helical propeller for bacterial locomotion. It is a helical assembly of a single protein, flagellin, and its tubular structure is formed by 11 protofilaments in two distinct conformations, L- and R-type, for supercoiling. The X-ray crystal structure of a flagellin fragment lacking about 100 terminal residues revealed the protofilament structure, but the full filament structure is still essential for understanding the mechanism of supercoiling and polymerization. Here we report a complete atomic model of the R-type filament by electron cryomicroscopy. A density map obtained from image data up to 4 A resolution shows the feature of alpha-helical backbone and some large side chains. The atomic model built on the map reveals intricate molecular packing and an alpha-helical coiled coil formed by the terminal chains in the inner core of the filament, with its intersubunit hydrophobic interactions having an important role in stabilizing the filament.

MeSH terms

  • Cryoelectron Microscopy*
  • Crystallography, X-Ray
  • Flagella / chemistry*
  • Flagella / ultrastructure*
  • Flagellin / chemistry*
  • Flagellin / genetics
  • Flagellin / ultrastructure*
  • Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions
  • Models, Molecular
  • Mutation, Missense
  • Protein Structure, Quaternary
  • Protein Structure, Tertiary
  • Protein Subunits
  • Salmonella typhimurium / chemistry*
  • Salmonella typhimurium / genetics
  • Salmonella typhimurium / ultrastructure
  • Static Electricity

Substances

  • Protein Subunits
  • Flagellin

Associated data

  • PDB/1UCU