title: MotD of Sinorhizobium meliloti and related alpha-proteobacteria is the flagellar-hook-length regulator and therefore reassigned as FliK.
abstract: The flagella of the soil bacterium Sinorhizobium meliloti differ from the enterobacterial paradigm in the complex filament structure and modulation of the flagellar rotary speed. The mode of motility control in S. meliloti has a molecular corollary in two novel periplasmic motility proteins, MotC and MotE, that are present in addition to the ubiquitous MotA/MotB energizing proton channel. A fifth motility gene is located in the mot operon downstream of the motB and motC genes. Its gene product was originally designated MotD, a cytoplasmic motility protein having an unknown function. We report here reassignment of MotD as FliK, the regulator of flagellar hook length. The FliK gene is one of the few flagellar genes not annotated in the contiguous flagellar regulon of S. meliloti. Characteristic for its class, the 475-residue FliK protein contains a conserved, compactly folded Flg hook domain in its carboxy-terminal region. Deletion of fliK leads to formation of prolonged flagellar hooks (polyhooks) with missing filament structures. Extragenic suppressor mutations all mapped in the cytoplasmic region of the transmembrane export protein FlhB and restored assembly of a flagellar filament, and thus motility, in the presence of polyhooks. The structural properties of FliK are consistent with its function as a substrate specificity switch of the flagellar export apparatus for switching from rod/hook-type substrates to filament-type substrates.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Biochemie, Genetik und Mikrobiologie, Universität Regensburg, D-93040 Regensburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Elke
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Eggenhofer
authors.forename: Reinhard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rachel
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Haslbeck
authors.forename: Birgit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Scharf
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology*; D005407:Flagella / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D017353:Gene Deletion; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D020409:Molecular Motor Proteins; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009068:Movement; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary / Q000235:genetics; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D016962:Sinorhizobium meliloti / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D013489:Suppression, Genetic
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; C085668:FlhB protein, Bacteria; C099486:FliK protein, Bacteria; D008565:Membrane Proteins; D020409:Molecular Motor Proteins; C108620:MotD protein, Rhizobium meliloti