Skip to main content
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1995 Apr 11;92(8):3502–3506. doi: 10.1073/pnas.92.8.3502

Fluctuation analysis of rotational speeds of the bacterial flagellar motor.

A D Samuel 1, H C Berg 1
PMCID: PMC42195  PMID: 7724590

Abstract

We measured the dependence of the variance in the rotation rate of tethered cells of Escherichia coli on the mean rotation rate over a regime in which the motor generates constant torque. This dependence was compared with that of broken motors. In either case, motor torque was augmented with externally applied torque. We show that, in contrast to broken motors, functioning motors in this regime do not freely rotationally diffuse and that the variance measurements are consistent with the predicted values of a stepping mechanism with exponentially distributed waiting times (a Poisson stepper) that steps approximately 400 times per revolution.

Full text

PDF
3502

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Berg H. C., Anderson R. A. Bacteria swim by rotating their flagellar filaments. Nature. 1973 Oct 19;245(5425):380–382. doi: 10.1038/245380a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Berg H. C. Dynamic properties of bacterial flagellar motors. Nature. 1974 May 3;249(452):77–79. doi: 10.1038/249077a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Berg H. C., Turner L. Torque generated by the flagellar motor of Escherichia coli. Biophys J. 1993 Nov;65(5):2201–2216. doi: 10.1016/S0006-3495(93)81278-5. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Blair D. F., Berg H. C. Restoration of torque in defective flagellar motors. Science. 1988 Dec 23;242(4886):1678–1681. doi: 10.1126/science.2849208. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Block S. M., Berg H. C. Successive incorporation of force-generating units in the bacterial rotary motor. 1984 May 31-Jun 6Nature. 309(5967):470–472. doi: 10.1038/309470a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Block S. M., Blair D. F., Berg H. C. Compliance of bacterial flagella measured with optical tweezers. Nature. 1989 Apr 6;338(6215):514–518. doi: 10.1038/338514a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Kashket E. R. The proton motive force in bacteria: a critical assessment of methods. Annu Rev Microbiol. 1985;39:219–242. doi: 10.1146/annurev.mi.39.100185.001251. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Khan S., Meister M., Berg H. C. Constraints on flagellar rotation. J Mol Biol. 1985 Aug 20;184(4):645–656. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(85)90310-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Meister M., Caplan S. R., Berg H. C. Dynamics of a tightly coupled mechanism for flagellar rotation. Bacterial motility, chemiosmotic coupling, protonmotive force. Biophys J. 1989 May;55(5):905–914. doi: 10.1016/S0006-3495(89)82889-9. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Meister M., Lowe G., Berg H. C. The proton flux through the bacterial flagellar motor. Cell. 1987 Jun 5;49(5):643–650. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(87)90540-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Muramoto K., Sugiyama S., Cragoe E. J., Jr, Imae Y. Successive inactivation of the force-generating units of sodium-driven bacterial flagellar motors by a photoreactive amiloride analog. J Biol Chem. 1994 Feb 4;269(5):3374–3380. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Oosawa F., Hayashi S. The loose coupling mechanism in molecular machines of living cells. Adv Biophys. 1986;22:151–183. doi: 10.1016/0065-227x(86)90005-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Silverman M., Simon M. Flagellar rotation and the mechanism of bacterial motility. Nature. 1974 May 3;249(452):73–74. doi: 10.1038/249073a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Svoboda K., Mitra P. P., Block S. M. Fluctuation analysis of motor protein movement and single enzyme kinetics. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1994 Dec 6;91(25):11782–11786. doi: 10.1073/pnas.91.25.11782. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are provided here courtesy of National Academy of Sciences

RESOURCES