title: Flagellin redundancy in Caulobacter crescentus and its implications for flagellar filament assembly.
abstract: Bacterial flagella play key roles in surface attachment and host-bacterial interactions as well as driving motility. Here, we have investigated the ability of Caulobacter crescentus to assemble its flagellar filament from six flagellins: FljJ, FljK, FljL, FljM, FljN, and FljO. Flagellin gene deletion combinations exhibited a range of phenotypes from no motility or impaired motility to full motility. Characterization of the mutant collection showed the following: (i) that there is no strict requirement for any one of the six flagellins to assemble a filament; (ii) that there is a correlation between slower swimming speeds and shorter filament lengths in ΔfljK ΔfljM mutants; (iii) that the flagellins FljM to FljO are less stable than FljJ to FljL; and (iv) that the flagellins FljK, FljL, FljM, FljN, and FljO alone are able to assemble a filament.
authors: Centre for Bacterial Cell Biology, Newcastle University, Framlington Place, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom.
authors: Alexandra
authors: A
authors: Faulds-Pain
authors: Christopher
authors: C
authors: Birchall
authors: Christine
authors: C
authors: Aldridge
authors: Wendy D
authors: WD
authors: Smith
authors: Giulia
authors: G
authors: Grimaldi
authors: Shuichi
authors: S
authors: Nakamura
authors: Tomoko
authors: T
authors: Miyata
authors: Joe
authors: J
authors: Gray
authors: Guanglai
authors: G
authors: Li
authors: Jay X
authors: JX
authors: Tang
authors: Keiichi
authors: K
authors: Namba
authors: Tohru
authors: T
authors: Minamino
authors: Phillip D
authors: PD
authors: Aldridge
mesh_terms: D016935:Caulobacter crescentus / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D005407:Flagella / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D005408:Flagellin / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D017353:Gene Deletion; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D008124:Locomotion; D046911:Macromolecular Substances / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008854:Microscopy, Electron
chemical_list: D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D005408:Flagellin