Role of the N- and C-Terminal Regions of FliF, the MS Ring Component in the Vibrio Flagellar Basal Body

ABSTRACT

The MS ring is a part of the flagellar basal body and formed by 34 subunits of FliF, which consists of a large periplasmic region and two transmembrane segments connected to the N- and C-terminal regions facing the cytoplasm. A cytoplasmic protein, FlhF, which determines the position and number of the basal body, supports MS ring formation in the membrane in Vibrio species. In this study, we constructed FliF deletion mutants that lack 30 or 50 residues from the N terminus (ΔN30 and ΔN50) and 83 (ΔC83) or 110 residues (ΔC110) at the C terminus. The N-terminal deletions were functional and conferred motility of Vibrio cells, whereas the C-terminal deletions were nonfunctional. The mutants were expressed in Escherichia coli to determine whether an MS ring could still be assembled. When coexpressing ΔN30FliF or ΔN50FliF with FlhF, fewer MS rings were observed than with the expression of wild-type FliF in the MS ring fraction, suggesting that the N terminus interacts with FlhF. MS ring formation is probably inefficient without FlhF. The deletion of the C-terminal cytoplasmic region did not affect the ability of FliF to form an MS ring because a similar number of MS rings were observed for ΔC83FliF as for wild-type FliF, although further deletion of the second transmembrane segment (ΔC110FliF) abolished it. These results suggest that the terminal regions of FliF have distinct roles, the N-terminal region for efficient MS ring formation and the C-terminal region for MS ring function. The second transmembrane segment is indispensable for MS ring assembly.

IMPORTANCE The bacterial flagellum is a supramolecular architecture involved in cell motility. At the base of the flagella, a rotary motor that begins to construct an MS ring in the cytoplasmic membrane comprises 34 transmembrane proteins (FliF). Here, we investigated the roles of the N- and C-terminal regions of FliF, which are MS rings. Unexpectedly, the cytoplasmic regions of FliF are not indispensable for the formation of the MS ring, but the N terminus appears to assist in ring formation through recruitment of FlhF, which is essential for flagellar formation. The C terminus is essential for motor formation or function.