Direct observation of speed fluctuations of flagellar motor rotation at extremely low load close to zero

What is it about?

The flagellar motor accommodates a dozen stator units around a rotor. Each stator unit associates with and dissociate from the motor in a load-dependent manner. To precisely measure flagellar motor dynamics at extremely low load close to zero, we constructed a Salmonella filament-less mutant that produces a rigid, straight, twice longer hook to efficiently label a 60 nm gold particle and provided evidence suggesting that the binding lifetime of each stator unit is relatively short.

Featured Image