Figure 3.

An assembly model for the archaellum of M. maripaludis. The N-linked glycan, synthesized by a series of Agl proteins and assembled by Agl glycosyltransferases on an unknown lipid carrier is flipped across the cytoplasmic membrane and attached to the archaellins by the oligosaccharyltransferase AglB. The archaellins are also processed by FlaK which removes the signal peptide and the posttranslationally modified subunits are added to the growing structure by incorporation of new subunits at the base through the activities of the ATPase FlaI in conjunction with the conserved membrane protein FlaJ.