TY - JOUR
T1 - Flagellar motility of the pathogenic spirochetes
AU - Wolgemuth, Charles W.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by NIH R01 GM072004. I thank M. Harman and D. Vig for useful comments.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd.
PY - 2015/10/1
Y1 - 2015/10/1
N2 - Bacterial pathogens are often classified by their toxicity and invasiveness. The invasiveness of a given bacterium is determined by how capable the bacterium is at invading a broad range of tissues in its host. Of mammalian pathogens, some of the most invasive come from a group of bacteria known as the spirochetes, which cause diseases, such as syphilis, Lyme disease, relapsing fever and leptospirosis. Most of the spirochetes are characterized by their distinct shapes and unique motility. They are long, thin bacteria that can be shaped like flat-waves, helices, or have more irregular morphologies. Like many other bacteria, the spirochetes use long, helical appendages known as flagella to move; however, the spirochetes enclose their flagella in the periplasm, the narrow space between the inner and outer membranes. Rotation of the flagella in the periplasm causes the entire cell body to rotate and/or undulate. These deformations of the bacterium produce the force that drives the motility of these organisms, and it is this unique motility that likely allows these bacteria to be highly invasive in mammals. This review will describe the current state of knowledge on the motility and biophysics of these organisms and provide evidence on how this knowledge can inform our understanding of spirochetal diseases.
AB - Bacterial pathogens are often classified by their toxicity and invasiveness. The invasiveness of a given bacterium is determined by how capable the bacterium is at invading a broad range of tissues in its host. Of mammalian pathogens, some of the most invasive come from a group of bacteria known as the spirochetes, which cause diseases, such as syphilis, Lyme disease, relapsing fever and leptospirosis. Most of the spirochetes are characterized by their distinct shapes and unique motility. They are long, thin bacteria that can be shaped like flat-waves, helices, or have more irregular morphologies. Like many other bacteria, the spirochetes use long, helical appendages known as flagella to move; however, the spirochetes enclose their flagella in the periplasm, the narrow space between the inner and outer membranes. Rotation of the flagella in the periplasm causes the entire cell body to rotate and/or undulate. These deformations of the bacterium produce the force that drives the motility of these organisms, and it is this unique motility that likely allows these bacteria to be highly invasive in mammals. This review will describe the current state of knowledge on the motility and biophysics of these organisms and provide evidence on how this knowledge can inform our understanding of spirochetal diseases.
KW - Bacterial motility
KW - Leptospirosis
KW - Lyme disease
KW - Spirochetes
KW - Syphilis
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U2 - 10.1016/j.semcdb.2015.10.015
DO - 10.1016/j.semcdb.2015.10.015
M3 - Review article
C2 - 26481969
AN - SCOPUS:84951277335
SN - 1084-9521
VL - 46
SP - 104
EP - 112
JO - Seminars in Cell Biology
JF - Seminars in Cell Biology
ER -