Functional chimeras of flagellar stator proteins between E. coli MotB and Vibrio PomB at the periplasmic region in Vibrio or E. coli. Issue 2 (29th January 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Nishino, Yuuki; Onoue, Yasuhiro; Kojima, Seiji; Homma, Michio
• Is Part Of: MicrobiologyOpen. Volume 4:Issue 2(2015:Apr.)
• Page Start: 323
• Page End: 331
• Publication Date: 2015-01-29
• Subjects: Microbiology -- Periodicals; 579
• DOI: 10.1002/mbo3.240
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2045-8827

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" id="mbo3240-abs-0001"> <title>Abstract</title> <p>The bacterial flagellar motor has a stator and a rotor. The stator is composed of two membrane proteins, MotA and MotB in <italic>Escherichia coli</italic> and PomA and PomB in <italic>Vibrio alginolyticus</italic>. The <italic>Vibrio</italic> motor has a unique structure, the T ring, which is composed of MotX and MotY. Based on the structural information of PomB and MotB, we constructed three chimeric proteins between PomB and MotB, named PotB<sub>91</sub>, PotB<sub>129, </sub> and PotB<sub>138</sub>, with various chimeric junctions. When those chimeric proteins were produced with PomA in a Δ<italic>motAB</italic> strain of <italic>E. coli</italic> or in Δ<italic>pomAB</italic> and Δ<italic>pomAB</italic> Δ<italic>motX</italic> strains of <italic>Vibrio</italic>, all chimeras were functional in <italic>E. coli</italic> or <italic>Vibrio</italic>, either with or without the T ring, although the motilities were very weak in <italic>E. coli</italic>. Furthermore, we could isolate some suppressors in <italic>E. coli</italic> and identified the mutation sites on PomA or the chimeric B subunit. The weak function of chimeric PotBs in <italic>E. coli</italic> is derived mainly from the defect in the rotational switching of the flagellar motor. In addition, comparing the motilities of chimera strains in Δ<italic>pomAB</italic>, PotB<sub>138</sub> had the highest motility. The difference between the origin of the <italic>α</italic>1 and <italic>α</italic>2 helices, <italic>E. coli</italic> MotB or <italic>Vibro</italic> PomB, seems to be important for motility in <italic>E. coli</italic> and especially in <italic>Vibrio</italic>.</p> </abstract>