RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Bacterial flagellar motor PL-ring disassembly Sub-complexes are widespread and ancient
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 786715
DO 10.1101/786715
A1 Mohammed Kaplan
A1 Michael J. Sweredoski
A1 João P.G.L.M. Rodrigues
A1 Elitza I. Tocheva
A1 Yi-Wei Chang
A1 Davi R. Ortega
A1 Morgan Beeby
A1 Grant J. Jensen
YR 2019
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/09/30/786715.abstract
AB The bacterial flagellar motor is an amazing nanomachine. Understanding how such complex structures arose is crucial to our understanding of cellular evolution. We and others recently reported that in several Gammaproteobacterial species, a relic sub-complex comprising the decorated P- and L-rings persists in the outer membrane after flagellum disassembly. Imaging nine additional species with cryo-electron tomography, here we show that this sub-complex persists after flagellum disassembly in other phyla as well. Bioinformatic analyses fail to show evidence of any recent horizontal transfers of the P- and L-ring genes, suggesting that this sub-complex and its persistence is an ancient and conserved feature of the flagellar motor. We hypothesize that one function of the P- and L-rings is to seal the outer membrane after motor disassembly.