TY - JOUR T1 - The structural complexity of the Gammaproteobacteria flagellar motor is related to the type of its torque-generating stators JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/369397 SP - 369397 AU - Mohammed Kaplan AU - Debnath Ghosal AU - Poorna Subramanian AU - Catherine M. Oikonomou AU - Andreas Kjær AU - Sahand Pirbadian AU - Davi R. Ortega AU - Mohamed Y. El-Naggar AU - Grant J. Jensen Y1 - 2018/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/07/14/369397.abstract N2 - The bacterial flagellar motor is a cell-envelope-embedded macromolecular machine that functions as a propeller to move the cell. Rather than being an invariant machine, the flagellar motor exhibits significant variability between species, allowing bacteria to adapt to, and thrive in, a wide range of environments. For instance, different torque-generating stator modules allow motors to operate in conditions with different pH and sodium concentrations and some motors are adapted to drive motility in high-viscosity environments. How such diversity evolved is unknown. Here we use electron cryo-tomography to determine the in situ macromolecular structures of the flagellar motors of three Gammaproteobacteria species: Legionella pneumophila, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Shewanella oneidensis MR-1, providing the first views of intact motors with dual stator systems. Complementing our imaging with bioinformatics analysis, we find a correlation between the stator system of the motor and its structural complexity. Motors with a single H+-driven stator system have only the core P- and L-rings in their periplasm; those with dual H+-driven stator systems have an extra component elaborating their P-ring; and motors with Na+- (or dual Na+-H+)- driven stator systems have additional rings surrounding both their P- and L-rings. Our results suggest an evolution of structural complexity that may have enabled pathogenic bacteria like L. pneumophila and P. aeruginosa to colonize higher-viscosity environments in animal hosts. ER -