Morphology of the archaellar motor and associated cytoplasmic cone in Thermococcus kodakaraensis
Abstract
Archaeal swimming motility is driven by archaella: rotary motors attached to long extracellular filaments. The structure of these motors, and particularly how they are anchored in the absence of a peptidoglycan cell wall, is unknown. Here, we use electron cryotomography to visualize the archaellar basal body in vivo in Thermococcus kodakaraensis KOD1. Compared to the homologous bacterial type IV pilus (T4P), we observe structural similarities as well as several unique features. While the position of the cytoplasmic ATPase appears conserved, it is not braced by linkages that extend upward through the cell envelope as in the T4P, but rather by cytoplasmic components that attach it to a large conical frustum up to 500 nm in diameter at its base. In addition to anchoring the lophotrichous bundle of archaella, the conical frustum associates with chemosensory arrays and ribosome‐excluding material and may function as a polar organizing center for the coccoid cells.
Additional Information
© 2017 The Authors. Received 13 February 2017; Revised 29 June 2017; Accepted 4 July 2017. This work was supported by the NIH (grant R01AI127401 to G.J.J.) and the UCLA‐DOE Institute (grant DE‐FC03‐02ER26342 to R.P.G.). Author contributions: AB and GJJ conceived the experiments; AB, ANH, KWK, DG, HHN, DK and RROL conducted the experiments; AB, CMO, YWC, AK, ANH, HHN, DK, RROL and RPG performed analysis; CMO and GJJ wrote the manuscript; all authors revised the manuscript. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.Attached Files
Submitted - 108209.full.pdf
Supplemental Material - inline-supplementary-material-1.pdf
Supplemental Material - inline-supplementary-material-2.zip
Supplemental Material - inline-supplementary-material-3.xlsx
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Additional details
- Alternative title
- Structure of the archaellar motor and associated cytoplasmic cone in Thermococcus kodakaraensis
- PMCID
- PMC5579351
- Eprint ID
- 78344
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20170619-154838039
- R01AI127401
- NIH
- DE-FC03-02ER26342
- Department of Energy (DOE)
- Created
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2017-06-20Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2023-06-01Created from EPrint's last_modified field