Hypothesis: chemotaxis in Escherichia coli results from hyper-structure dynamics.
Large assemblies of different molecules and macromolecules,termed hyper structures, have been proposed to be the units of an intermediate level of organisation in bacteria. Here we propose a model for chemotaxis in Escherichia coli in which (1) the size and functioning of the chemo-signalling hyper-structure depends not only on the protein constituents but also on cardiolipin and calcium,(2) the coupled transcription, translation and insertion of nascent proteins (transertion) is a potentially powerful influence in determining the size of the chemo-signalling hyper-structure and therefore in affecting its function, and (3) a single transertional hyper-structure is jointly responsible for the synthesis of chemo-signalling and flagellar proteins so as to divorce the size of the chemo-signalling hyper-structure from the transertion of its constituents.
Cabin-Flaman
Armelle
A
FRE CNRS 2829, Faculty of Science, University of Rouen, Mont-Saint-Aignan, and the Epigenomics Programme, Evry, France. Armelle.Cabin@univ-rouen.fr
Ripoll
Camille
C
Saier
Milton H
MH
Norris
Vic
V
D002308:Cardiolipins / Q000378:metabolism; D002633:Chemotaxis; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D005407:Flagella / Q000502:physiology*; D007477:Ions / Q000378:metabolism; D008563:Membrane Lipids / Q000378:metabolism; D008954:Models, Biological; D010766:Phosphorylation; D015398:Signal Transduction
D002308:Cardiolipins; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D007477:Ions; D008563:Membrane Lipids