This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Reprints and Permissions Copyright Information Books from ASM Press MicrobeWorld Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Bardy, S. L. Articles by Jarrell, K. F. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Bardy, S. L. Articles by Jarrell, K. F.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Journal of Bacteriology, October 2002, p. 5223-5233, Vol. 184, No. 19
0021-9193/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JB.184.19.5223-5233.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Identification and Localization of Flagellins FlaA and FlaB3 within Flagella of Methanococcus voltae

Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada K7L 3N6,¹ Department of Biosciences, Teikyo University, Utsunomiya 320-8551, Japan,² Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, Oxford OX1 3RE, United Kingdom³

Received 5 April 2002/ Accepted 7 June 2002

Methanococcus voltae possesses four flagellin genes, two of which (flaB1 and flaB2) have previously been reported to encode major components of the flagellar filament. The remaining two flagellin genes, flaA and flaB3, are transcribed at lower levels, and the corresponding proteins remained undetected prior to this work. Electron microscopy examination of flagella isolated by detergent extraction of whole cells revealed a curved, hook-like region of varying length at the end of a long filament. Enrichment of the curved region of the flagella resulted in the identification of FlaB3 by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and N-terminal sequencing, and the localization of this flagellin to the cell-proximal portion of the flagellum was confirmed through immunoblotting and immunoelectron microscopy with FlaB3-specific antibodies, indicating that FlaB3 likely composes the curved portion of the flagella. This could represent a unique case of a flagellin performing the role of the bacterial hook protein. FlaA-specific antibodies were used in immunoblotting to determine that FlaA is found throughout the flagellar filament. M. voltae cells were transformed with a modified flaA gene containing a hemagglutinin (HA) tag introduced into the variable region. Transformants that had replaced the wild-type copy of the flaA gene with the HA-tagged version incorporated the HA-tagged version of FlaA into flagella which appeared normal by electron microscopy.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Ng, S. Y. M., Zolghadr, B., Driessen, A. J. M., Albers, S.-V., Jarrell, K. F. (2008). Cell Surface Structures of Archaea. J. Bacteriol. 190: 6039-6047 [Full Text]  
• Nather, D. J., Rachel, R., Wanner, G., Wirth, R. (2006). Flagella of Pyrococcus furiosus: Multifunctional Organelles, Made for Swimming, Adhesion to Various Surfaces, and Cell-Cell Contacts.. J. Bacteriol. 188: 6915-6923 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Voisin, S., Houliston, R. S., Kelly, J., Brisson, J.-R., Watson, D., Bardy, S. L., Jarrell, K. F., Logan, S. M. (2005). Identification and Characterization of the Unique N-Linked Glycan Common to the Flagellins and S-layer Glycoprotein of Methanococcus voltae. J. Biol. Chem. 280: 16586-16593 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Bardy, S. L., Ng, S. Y. M., Jarrell, K. F. (2003). Prokaryotic motility structures. Microbiology 149: 295-304 [Abstract] [Full Text]