Abstract
The gliding bacterium Flavobacterium johnsoniae is known to have an adhesin, SprB, that moves along the cell surface on a spiral track. Following viscous shear, cells can be tethered by the addition of an anti-SprB antibody, causing spinning at 3 Hz. Labeling the type 9 secretion system (T9SS) with a YFP fusion of GldL showed a yellow fluorescent spot near the rotation axis, indicating that the motor driving the motion is associated with the T9SS. The distance between the rotation axis and the track (90 nm) was determined after adding a Cy3 label for SprB. A rotary motor spinning a pinion of radius 90 nm at 3 Hz would cause a spot on its periphery to move at 1.5 μm/s, the gliding speed. We suggest the pinion drives a flexible tread that carries SprB along a track fixed to the cell surface. Cells glide when this adhesin adheres to the solid substratum.
- Copyright © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC).
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, so long as the resultant use is not for commercial advantage and provided the original work is properly cited.
