Flagellar motility is mutagenic.

ABSTRACT: Flagella are highly complex rotary molecular machines that enable bacteria to not only migrate to optimal environments but also to promote range expansion, competitiveness, virulence, and antibiotic survival. Flagellar motility is an energy-demanding process, where the sum of its production (biosynthesis) and operation (rotation) costs has been estimated to total ~10% of the entire energy budget of an Escherichia coli cell. The acquisition of such a costly adaptation process is expected to secure short-term benefits by increasing competitiveness and survival, as well as long-term evolutionary fitness gains. While the role of flagellar motility in bacterial survival has been widely reported, its direct influence on the rate of evolution remains unclear. We show here that both product

SUBMITTER: Bhattacharyya S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11474059 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature