Bacterial motility: how do pili pull?
Forceful retraction of a bacterial pilus has been directly observed for the first time. As retraction clarifies the basic mechanochemistry of single cell twitching and gliding movements, so cell-to-cell signalling by contact clarifies the coordination of multicellular gliding movements.
Kaiser
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Departments of Biochemistry and Developmental Biology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305-5329, USA.
D018407:Bacterial Physiological Phenomena; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000378:metabolism; D010861:Fimbriae, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D008954:Models, Biological; D009068:Movement; D010641:Phenotype