Structural diversity and clustering of bacterial flagellar outer domains

Bibliographic Details
Title: Structural diversity and clustering of bacterial flagellar outer domains
Authors: Jessie Lynda Fields, Hua Zhang, Nathan F. Bellis, Holly A. Petersen, Sajal K. Halder, Shane T. Rich-New, Mart Krupovic, Hui Wu, Fengbin Wang
Source: Nature Communications, Vol 15, Iss 1, Pp 1-12 (2024)
Publisher Information: Nature Portfolio, 2024.
Publication Year: 2024
Collection: LCC:Science
Subject Terms: Science
More Details: Abstract Supercoiled flagellar filaments function as mechanical propellers within the bacterial flagellum complex, playing a crucial role in motility. Flagellin, the building block of the filament, features a conserved inner D0/D1 core domain across different bacterial species. In contrast, approximately half of the flagellins possess additional, highly divergent outer domain(s), suggesting varied functional potential. In this study, we report atomic structures of flagellar filaments from three distinct bacterial species: Cupriavidus gilardii, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, and Geovibrio thiophilus. Our findings reveal that the flagella from the facultative anaerobic G. thiophilus possesses a significantly more negatively charged surface, potentially enabling adhesion to positively charged minerals. Furthermore, we analyze all AlphaFold predicted structures for annotated bacterial flagellins, categorizing the flagellin outer domains into 682 structural clusters. This classification provides insights into the prevalence and experimental verification of these outer domains. Remarkably, two of the flagellar structures reported herein belong to a distinct cluster, indicating additional opportunities on the study of the functional diversity of flagellar outer domains. Our findings underscore the complexity of bacterial flagellins and open up possibilities for future studies into their varied roles beyond motility.
Document Type: article
File Description: electronic resource
Language: English
ISSN: 2041-1723
Relation: https://doaj.org/toc/2041-1723
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-53923-w
Access URL: https://doaj.org/article/3a31c89a0eb74cd9af0b3e5f2fc3ad22
Accession Number: edsdoj.3a31c89a0eb74cd9af0b3e5f2fc3ad22
Database: Directory of Open Access Journals
More Details
ISSN:20411723
DOI:10.1038/s41467-024-53923-w
Published in:Nature Communications
Language:English