FlhE functions as a chaperone to prevent formation of periplasmic flagella in Gram-negative bacteria

Autor: Manuel Halte, Ekaterina P. Andrianova, Christian Goosmann, Fabienne F. V. Chevance, Kelly T. Hughes, Igor B. Zhulin, Marc Erhardt
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2024
Předmět:
Zdroj: Nature Communications, Vol 15, Iss 1, Pp 1-15 (2024)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2041-1723
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-50278-0
Popis: Abstract The bacterial flagellum, which facilitates motility, is composed of ~20 structural proteins organized into a long extracellular filament connected to a cytoplasmic rotor-stator complex via a periplasmic rod. Flagellum assembly is regulated by multiple checkpoints that ensure an ordered gene expression pattern coupled to the assembly of the various building blocks. Here, we use epifluorescence, super-resolution, and transmission electron microscopy to show that the absence of a periplasmic protein (FlhE) prevents proper flagellar morphogenesis and results in the formation of periplasmic flagella in Salmonella enterica. The periplasmic flagella disrupt cell wall synthesis, leading to a loss of normal cell morphology resulting in cell lysis. We propose that FlhE functions as a periplasmic chaperone to control assembly of the periplasmic rod, thus preventing formation of periplasmic flagella.
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