Bacterial Flagella Loss under Starvation

Siqi Zhu; Beile Gao

doi:10.1016/j.tim.2020.05.002

Bacterial Flagella Loss under Starvation

Trends Microbiol. 2020 Oct;28(10):785-788. doi: 10.1016/j.tim.2020.05.002. Epub 2020 May 23.

Authors

Siqi Zhu¹, Beile Gao²

Affiliations

¹ CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio Resources and Ecology, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Marine Materia Medica, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510301, China; Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory, Guangzhou, 511458, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
² CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio Resources and Ecology, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Marine Materia Medica, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510301, China; Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory, Guangzhou, 511458, China. Electronic address: gaob@scsio.ac.cn.

PMID: 32456977
DOI: 10.1016/j.tim.2020.05.002

Abstract

The bacterial flagellum is beneficial in most cases but it can become a burden when the energy source is low because it is very costly to assemble and energize for motility. Recent electron cryo-tomography and real-time fluorescence microscopy studies suggest that bacteria can remove their flagella under starvation in a programmed way.

Keywords: cryo-tomography; disassembly; flagella; nutrient limitation; real-time fluorescence microscopy.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Bacteria / classification
Bacteria / genetics
Bacteria / metabolism*
Bacteria / ultrastructure
Bacterial Proteins / genetics
Bacterial Proteins / metabolism
Energy Metabolism
Flagella / genetics
Flagella / metabolism*
Flagella / ultrastructure

Substances

Bacterial Proteins