Archaeal Flagella

David J VanDyke, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Sandy Y M Ng, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Bonnie Chaban, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
John Wu, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Ken F Jarrell, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada

Published online: September 2008

DOI: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0000386.pub2

The archaeal flagellum is a unique, ‘tail-like’ structure used for motility by single-celled organisms belonging to the domain Archaea. These intricate protein assemblies extend from the cell surface, rotating to generate thrust that propels the organism. Although archaeal flagella are functionally similar to the flagella found on bacteria, they differ significantly in structure and presumed mode of assembly.

 

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Key concepts
The student will learn:

Although functionally similar to bacterial flagella, archaeal flagella are unique motility structures in terms of their structure and assembly.

The structure of the flagellum can be divided into three distinct components: the filament, hook and anchoring structure. Each of these components is constructed of specific proteins either encoded by genes residing within flagellar operons or of currently unknown genes.

Assembly of the archaeal flagellum, which lacks the internal channel found in bacterial flagella, is thus believed to occur via incorporation of protein subunits at the base of the structure after they undergo the necessary posttranslational modifications of signal peptide cleavage and glycan addition.

Archaea use this motility apparatus in combination with chemotaxis systems to bias their direction of movement towards environmental conditions more favourable for cell growth.

Keywords: archaea; flagella; chemotaxis; methanogens; halophiles

Figure 1. Electron micrographs of (a) a Methanococcus maripaludis cell (approximately 1 m in diameter) displaying numerous flagellar filaments and (b) purified archaeal flagella from Methanococcus maripaludis (flagella approximately 12 nm in diameter). Arrows indicate hook regions. Courtesy of S.I. Aizawa. Both images were negatively stained with 2% phosphotungstic acid (pH 7.0).
Figure 2. Illustration of the structure and assembly of the archaeal flagellum. The flagellum is composed of three main components, the filament, hook and anchoring structure. A glycan is sequentially assembled onto a lipid carrier embedded in the cytoplasmic membrane. A preflagellin monomer harbouring an N-terminal amino acid signal sequence is directed to the site of the flagellum assembly, probably through the action of a chaperone. The signal sequence is removed by the preflagellin peptidase FlaK in concert with the transport of the flagellin across the cytoplasmic membrane. Upon attachment of the N-glycan to specific asparagine residues, the mature flagellin protein is incorporated at the base of the growing flagellar structure. Reproduced with permission from Jarrell and McBride (2008) The surprisingly diverse ways that prokaryotes move. Nature Reviews Microbiology 6: 466–676. Nature Publishing Group.
Figure 3. Organization of flagella gene families in selected archaeal species. Similar colours indicate homologues shared among families. Genes are transcribed in the direction of the arrows. In H. salinarum, the B flagellin genes are adjacent to the accessory genes, whereas the A flagellin genes are located elsewhere on the chromosome.
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Related Sub-Topics:

Cell Motility | Archaea | Composition and Structure of Microbial Cells
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Article Title: Archaeal Flagella
 
How to Cite close
VanDyke, David J, Ng, Sandy Y M, Chaban, Bonnie, Wu, John, and Jarrell, Ken F(Sep 2008) Archaeal Flagella. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0000386.pub2]