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Science 12 November 1993:
Vol. 262. no. 5136, pp. 1046 - 1048
DOI: 10.1126/science.8235620
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Articles

Science, Vol 262, Issue 5136, 1046-1048
Copyright © 1993 by American Association for the Advancement of Science

articles

An archimedian spiral: the basal disk of the Wolinella flagellar motor

H Engelhardt, SC Schuster, and E Baeuerlein

Department for Structural Biology, Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry, Martinsried, Germany.

The motor that powers the rotation of the bacterial flagellum reaches through both membranes into the cytoplasm of Gram-negative bacteria. The flagellum is connected by a flexible link (hook) to the motor axis, which passes through the center of a structure called the basal disk. The basal disk functions with the L-P ring complex as a bushing, enabling the rotation of the motor in the cell wall. The protein subunits of the basal disk of Wolinella succinogenes form an Archimedian spiral. The polymerization of subunits from a nucleation point at the motor in the form of a spiral allows constant growth of the basal disk. The disk is thought to provide a reinforcement at the flagellar insertion at the cell pole and to disperse forces that are generated by the momentum of the flagellar rotation.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
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Complete genome sequence and analysis of Wolinella succinogenes.
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Polar Flagellar Motility of the Vibrionaceae.
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Analysis of the Polar Flagellar Gene System of Vibrio parahaemolyticus.
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