The Bacterial Flagellar Motor

It has been known for some time that bacterial flagella are powered remarkable rotary motors and that flagellar rotation is energized by -proton, or sodium, electrochemical gradients rather ATP (7). Recently, a combined assault of genetic, biochemical, biophysical approaches has laid the groundwork for elaboration of molecular mechanism: (a) A set of proteins, defects in which abolish function, has been identified and their interactions are being . (b) New structural components of flagellar bases that likely to harbor the motor machinery have been visualized. (c) The -state relations between the electrochemical potentials, motor , and velocity have been determined in detail sufficient to constrain of explicit molecular models. This chapter reviews current understanding of the operation of the bacterial flagellar in the light of emerging principles underlying motile phenomena their regulation. General reviews on bacterial motility have been (37, 41, 62). Caplan & Kari-Ivanov (18) have written a review the flagellar motor, focused on analysis of motor models.