TCB Publications - Abstract

TCB Publications - Abstract

David E. Tanner, Wen Ma, Zhongzhou Chen, and Klaus Schulten. Theoretical and computational investigation of flagellin translocation and bacterial flagellum growth. Biophysical Journal, 100:2548-2556, 2011. (PMC: 3117181)

TANN2011 The bacterial flagellum is a self-assembling filament, which bacteria use for swimming. It is built from tens of thousands of flagellin monomers in a self-assembly process involving translocation of the monomers through the flagellar interior, a channel, to the growing tip. Each monomer is pumped into the filament at the base, translocates unfolded along the channel and then binds to the tip of the filament, thereby extending the growing flagellum. The flagellin translocation process, due to the flagellum maximum length of 10 $\mu$m, is an extreme example of protein transport through channels. Here, we derive a model for flagellin transport through the long confining channel, testing the key assumptions of the model through molecular dynamics simulations that also furnish system parameters needed for quantitative description. Together, theoretical model and molecular dynamics simulations explain why the growth rate of flagellar filaments decays exponentially with filament length and leads to a certain maximum length of the growing flagellum.

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