MotD of Sinorhizobium meliloti and related alpha-proteobacteria is the flagellar-hook-length regulator and therefore reassigned as FliK.

ABSTRACT: The flagella of the soil bacterium Sinorhizobium meliloti differ from the enterobacterial paradigm in the complex filament structure and modulation of the flagellar rotary speed. The mode of motility control in S. meliloti has a molecular corollary in two novel periplasmic motility proteins, MotC and MotE, that are present in addition to the ubiquitous MotA/MotB energizing proton channel. A fifth motility gene is located in the mot operon downstream of the motB and motC genes. Its gene product was originally designated MotD, a cytoplasmic motility protein having an unknown function. We report here reassignment of MotD as FliK, the regulator of flagellar hook length. The FliK gene is one of the few flagellar genes not annotated in the contiguous flagellar regulon of S. meliloti. Characteris

SUBMITTER: Eggenhofer E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1428147 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature