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A Molecular Clutch Disables Flagella in the Bacillus subtilis Biofilm
Kris M. Blair,1Linda Turner,2Jared T. Winkelman,1Howard C. Berg,2,3Daniel B. Kearns1*
Biofilms are multicellular aggregates of sessile bacteria encasedby an extracellular matrix and are important medically as asource of drug-resistant microbes. In Bacillus subtilis, wefound that an operon required for biofilm matrix biosynthesisalso encoded an inhibitor of motility, EpsE. EpsE arrested flagellarrotation in a manner similar to that of a clutch, by disengagingmotor force-generating elements in cells embedded in the biofilmmatrix. The clutch is a simple, rapid, and potentially reversibleform of motility control.
1 Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA. 2 Rowland Institute at Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. 3 Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: dbkearns{at}indiana.edu
