FliK regulates flagellar hook length as an internal ruler

The mechanism of length control of the flagellar hook is under debate between two theories. One claims that the FliK directly measures the hook length as a molecular ruler, while the other claims that the cytoplasmic substructure measures the amount of hook subunits to determine the hook length. Bot...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Molecular microbiology 2007-06, Vol.64 (5), p.1404-1415
Main Authors: Shibata, Satoshi, Takahashi, Noriko, Chevance, Fabienne F.V, Karlinsey, Joyce E, Hughes, Kelly T, Aizawa, Shin-Ichi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bacterial Proteins - chemistry
Bacterial Proteins - genetics
Bacterial Proteins - metabolism
Bacterial Proteins - ultrastructure
Bacteriology
Biological and medical sciences
Catalysis
Flagella
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Gene Deletion
Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial
Genes, Bacterial
Microbiology
Molecules
Mutagenesis, Insertional
Mutation
Peptide Fragments - chemistry
Peptide Fragments - genetics
Peptides
Protein Structure, Tertiary
Substrate Specificity
Yersinia - chemistry
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Summary:The mechanism of length control of the flagellar hook is under debate between two theories. One claims that the FliK directly measures the hook length as a molecular ruler, while the other claims that the cytoplasmic substructure measures the amount of hook subunits to determine the hook length. Both agree that the FliK C-terminal domain catalyses the substrate-specificity switch to terminate hook elongation. In this study, we systematically created fliK mutants with deletions and insertions at various sites within the FliK N-terminal domain and analysed their effects on the final hook length. Insertions of peptide fragments from the Yersinia YscP into FliK gave rise to hooks with defined lengths, which was proportional to the molecular size of the FliK-YscP chimeras. Among fliK deletion mutants, only those with small truncations in three specific sites of FliK produced hooks of a defined, shortened length. For the majority of deletion mutants, FliK was secreted, but hook length was not controlled. On the other hand, for some deletion mutants FliK was not secreted, but the hook length was controlled, indicating that FliK secretion is not necessary for hook-length control. We conclude that FliK regulates hook length as an internal molecular ruler.
ISSN:0950-382X
1365-2958
DOI:10.1111/j.1365-2958.2007.05750.x