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Published January 2007 | public
Journal Article

A nanoengine for gliding motility

Abstract

The terminal organelle present in some mycoplasma species is a very large, complex, flexible structure involved in cell adherence, motility and cell division. In this issue of Molecular Microbiology, Hasselbring and Krause report on a mutant in which the terminal organelle is only weakly connected to the rest of the cell. 'Run-away' terminal organelles first stretch the cells, then break away and continue moving independently for more than half an hour. This remarkable observation proves that the 'nanoengine' driving motility is indeed associated with the terminal organelle, and opens up new opportunities for dissecting and understanding its mechanism.

Additional Information

© 2006 The Author. Journal compilation © 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Accepted 30 October, 2006. Published Online: 9 November 2006. The author thanks Dylan Morris, Gregory Henderson, Duncan Krause and Tony Pugsley for comments on the draft and Everett Kane for creating the figure. G.J. acknowledges funding by the NIH, DOE and the Searle Foundation.

Additional details

Created:
August 19, 2023
Modified:
October 17, 2023