Pausing of flagellar rotation is a component of bacterial motility and chemotaxis.

When bacterial cells are tethered to glass by their flagella, many of them spin. On the basis of experiments with tethered cells it has generally been thought that the motor which drives the flagellum is a two-state device, existing in either a counterclockwise or a clockwise state. Here we show that a third state of the motor is that of pausing, the duration and frequency of which are affected by chemotactic stimuli. We have recorded on video tape the rotation of tethered Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium cells and analyzed the recordings frame by frame and in slow motion. Most wild-type cells paused intermittently. The addition of repellents caused an increase in the frequency and duration of the pauses. The addition of attractants sharply reduced the number of pauses. A chemotaxis mutant which lacks a large part of the chemotaxis machinery owing to a deletion of the genes from cheA to cheZ did not pause at all and did not respond to repellents by pausing. A tumbly mutant of S. typhimurium responded to repellents by smooth swimming and to attractants by tumbling. When tethered, these cells exhibited a normal rotational response but an inverse pausing response to chemotactic stimuli: the frequency of pauses decreased in response to repellents and increased in response to attractants. It is suggested that (i) pausing is an integral part of bacterial motility and chemotaxis, (ii) pausing is independent of the direction of flagellar rotation, and (iii) pausing may be one of the causes of tumbling.     

Rhizobium meliloti swims by unidirectional, intermittent rotation of right-handed flagellar helices.

The 5 to 10 peritrichously inserted complex flagella of Rhizobium meliloti MVII-1 were found to form right-handed flagellar bundles. Bacteria swam at speeds up to 60 microns/s, their random three-dimensional walk consisting of straight runs and quick directional changes (turns) without the vigorous angular motion (tumbling) seen in swimming Escherichia coli cells. Observations of R. meliloti cells tethered by a single flagellar filament revealed that flagellar rotation was exclusively clockwise, interrupted by very brief stops (shorter than 0.1 s), typically every 1 to 2 s. Swimming bacteria responded to chemotactic stimuli by extending their runs, and tethered bacteria responded by prolonged intervals of clockwise rotation. Moreover, the motility tracks of a generally nonchemotactic ("smooth") mutant consisted of long runs without sharp turns, and tethered mutant cells showed continuous clockwise rotation without detectable stops. These observations suggested that the runs of swimming cells correspond to clockwise flagellar rotation, and the turns correspond to the brief rotation stops. We propose that single rotating flagella (depending on their insertion point on the rod-shaped bacterial surface) can reorient a swimming cell whenever the majority of flagellar motors stop.     

Identification of a site of ATP requirement for signal processing in bacterial chemotaxis.

In Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium, ATP is required for chemotaxis and for a normal probability of clockwise rotation of the flagellar motors, in addition to the requirement for S-adenosylmethionine (J. Shioi, R. J. Galloway, M. Niwano, R. E. Chinnock, and B. L. Taylor, J. Biol. Chem. 257:7969-7975, 1982). The site of the ATP requirement was investigated. The times required for S. typhimurium ST23 (hisF) to adapt to a step increase in serine, phenol, or benzoate were similar in cells depleted of ATP and in cells with normal levels of ATP. This established that ATP was not required for the chemotactic signal to cross the inner membrane or for adaptation to the transmembrane signal to occur. Depletion of ATP did not affect the probability of clockwise rotation in E. coli cheYZ scy strains that were defective in the cheY and cheZ genes and had a partially compensating mutation in the motor switch. Strain HCB326 (cheAWRBYZ tar tap tsr trg::Tn10), which was deficient in all chemotaxis components except the switch and motor, was transformed with the pCK63 plasmid (ptac-cheY+). Induction of cheY in the transformant increased the frequency of clockwise rotation, but except at the highest levels of CheY overproduction, clockwise rotation was abolished by depleting ATP. It is proposed that the CheY protein is normally in an inactive form and that ATP is required for formation of an active CheY* protein that binds to the switch on the flagellar motors and initiates clockwise rotation. Depletion of ATP partially inhibits feedback regulation of the cheB product, protein methylesterase, but this may reflect a second site of ATP action in chemotaxis.     

A chemotactic signaling surface on CheY defined by suppressors of flagellar switch mutations.

CheY is the response regulator protein that interacts with the flagellar switch apparatus to modulate flagellar rotation during chemotactic signaling. CheY can be phosphorylated and dephosphorylated in vitro, and evidence indicates that CheY-P is the activated form that induces clockwise flagellar rotation, resulting in a tumble in the cell's swimming pattern. The flagellar switch apparatus is a complex macromolecular structure composed of at least three gene products, FliG, FliM, and FliN. Genetic analysis of Escherichia coli has identified fliG and fliM as genes in which mutations occur that allele specifically suppress cheY mutations, indicating interactions among these gene products. We have generated a class of cheY mutations selected for dominant suppression of fliG mutations. Interestingly, these cheY mutations dominantly suppressed both fliG and fliM mutations; this is consistent with the idea that the CheY protein interacts with both switch gene products during signaling. Biochemical characterization of wild-type and suppressor CheY proteins did not reveal altered phosphorylation properties or evidence for phosphorylation-dependent CheY multimerization. These data indicate that suppressor CheY proteins are specifically altered in the ability to transduce chemotactic signals to the switch at some point subsequent to phosphorylation. Physical mapping of suppressor amino acid substitutions on the crystal structure of CheY revealed a high degree of spatial clustering, suggesting that this region of CheY is a signaling surface that transduces chemotactic signals to the switch.     

Switching of the Bacterial Flagellar Motor Near Zero Load

Flagellated bacteria, such as Escherichia coli, are able to swim up gradients of chemical attractants by modulating the direction of rotation of their flagellar motors, which spin alternately clockwise (CW) and counterclockwise (CCW). Chemotactic behavior has been studied under a variety of conditions, mostly at high loads (at large motor torques). Here, we examine motor switching at low loads. Nano-gold spheres of various sizes were attached to hooks (the flexible coupling at the base of the flagellar filament) of cells lacking flagellar filaments in media containing different concentrations of the viscous agent Ficoll. The speeds and directions of rotation of the spheres were measured. Contrary to the case at high loads, motor switching rates increased appreciably with load. Both the CW → CCW and CCW → CW switching rates increased linearly with motor torque. Evidently, the switch senses stator-rotor interactions as well as the CheY-P concentration.     

Chemotactic-like response of Escherichia coli cells lacking the known chemotaxis machinery but containing overexpressed CheY

We describe a chemotactic-like response of Escherichia coli strains lacking most of the known chemotaxis machinery but containing high levels of the response regulator CheY. The bacteria accumulated in aspartate-containing capillaries, they formed rings on tryptone-containing semisolid agar, and the probability of counterclockwise flagellar rotation transiently increased in response to stimulation with aspartate (10(-10)-10(-5) M; the response was inverted at > 10(-4) M). The temporal response was partial and delayed, as was the response of a control wild-type strain having a high CheY level. alpha-Methyl-DL-aspartate, a non-metabolizable analogue of aspartate as well as other known attractants of E. Coli, glucose and, to a lesser extent, galactose, maltose and serine caused a similar response. So did low concentrations of acetate and benzoate (which, at higher concentrations, act as repellents for wild-type E. coli). Other tested repellents such as indole, Ni2+ and CO2+ increased the clockwise bias. These observations raise the possibility that, at least when the conventional signal transduction components are missing, a non-conventional chemotactic signal transduction pathway might be functional in E. coli. Potential molecular mechanisms are discussed.     

Acetylation of the response regulator, CheY, is involved in bacterial chemotaxis

It is well established that the response regulator of the chemotaxis system of Escherichia coli, CheY, can undergo acetylation at lysine residues 92 and 109 via a reaction mediated by acetyl-CoA synthetase (Acs). The outcome is activation of CheY, which results in increased clockwise rotation. Nevertheless, it has not been known whether CheY acetylation is involved in chemotaxis. To address this question, we examined the chemotactic behaviour of two mutants, one lacking the acetylating enzyme Acs, and the other having an arginine-for-lysine substitution at residue 92 of CheY - one of the acetylation sites. The Deltaacs mutant exhibited much reduced sensitivity to chemotactic stimuli (both attractants and repellents) in tethering assays and greatly reduced responses in ring-forming, plug and capillary assays. Likewise, the cheY(92KR) mutant had reduced sensitivity to repellents in tethering assays and a reduced response in capillary assays. However, its response to the addition or removal of attractants was normal. These observations suggest that Acs-mediated acetylation of CheY is involved in chemotaxis and that the acetylation site Lys-92 is only involved in the response to repellents. The observation that, in the cheY(92KR) mutant, the addition of a repellent was not chemotactically equivalent to the removal of an attractant also suggests that there are different signalling pathways for attractants and repellents in E. coli.     

A fragment liberated from the Escherichia coli CheA kinase that blocks stimulatory, but not inhibitory, chemoreceptor signaling.

CheA, a cytoplasmic histidine autokinase, in conjunction with the CheW coupling protein, forms stable ternary complexes with the cytoplasmic signaling domains of transmembrane chemoreceptors. These signaling complexes induce chemotactic movements by stimulating or inhibiting CheA autophosphorylation activity in response to chemoeffector stimuli. To explore the mechanisms of CheA control by chemoreceptor signaling complexes, we examined the ability of various CheA fragments to interfere with receptor coupling control of CheA. CheA[250-654], a fragment carrying the catalytic domain and an adjacent C-terminal segment previously implicated in stimulatory control of CheA activity, interfered with the production of clockwise flagellar rotation and with chemotactic ability in wild-type cells. Epistasis tests indicated that CheA[250-654] blocked clockwise rotation by disrupting stimulatory coupling of CheA to receptors. In vitro coupling assays confirmed that a stoichiometric excess of CheA[250-654] fragments could exclude CheA from stimulatory receptor complexes, most likely by competing for CheW binding. However, CheA[250-654] fragments, even in vast excess, did not block receptor-mediated inhibition of CheA, suggesting that CheA[250-654] lacks an inhibitory contact site present in native CheA. This inhibitory target is most likely in the N-terminal P1 domain, which contains His-48, the site of autophosphorylation. These findings suggest a simple allosteric model of CheA control by ternary signaling complexes in which the receptor signaling domain conformationally regulates the interaction between the substrate and catalytic domains of CheA.     

A model for bacterial flagellar motor: free energy transduction and self-organization of rotational motion

A bacterial flagellar motor is an energy transducing molecular machine which shows some attractive characteristics. First, this motor is driven by a protonmotive force (PMF) across the membrane, two components of which, electric potential delta psi and chemical potential -(2.3RT/F)delta pH, are equivalently transduced to the mechanical work of the motor rotation. Second, a PMF threshold for rotation is observed. Third, this motor can rotate reversibly either counterclockwise (CCW) or clockwise (CW) at almost the same speed. To clarify the osmomechanical coupling of this motor, these characteristics must be explained consistently at the molecular level. In this paper, in order to allow quantitative analyses of the above characteristics, a theoretical model of a bacterial flagellar motor is constructed assuming that the torque generating sites are electrodes which can be charged by protons and that the electrostatic interaction between the electrodes generates the rotation torque. Electrode reaction reasonably derives the equivalence of delta psi and -(2.3RT/F)delta pH. In this model, rates of charging and discharging of protons are influenced by the motor rotation rate, so that the torque generating sites co-operatively work through the motor rotation. We named this kind of co-operativity among them "dynamic co-operativity" in torque generation. This co-operativity causes autocatalytic generation of motor torque and the existence of the rotation threshold. In this model, the appearance of the stable rotational states can be described by phase transition caused by the dynamic co-operativity among torque generating sites. According to this model, the flagellar motor has two stable rotational states corresponding to CCW and CW, which show the same torques. The motor selects one direction from them to rotate, and that is self-organization of rotational motion. Interpretation of the transition between the two stable rotational states as the chemotactic reversals of the flagellar motor is also discussed.     

Bacterial cell-body rotation driven by a single flagellar motor and by a bundle

Using self-trapped Escherichia coli bacteria that have intact flagellar bundles on glass surfaces, we study statistical fluctuations of cell-body rotation in a steady (unstimulated) state. These fluctuations underline direction randomization of bacterial swimming trajectories and plays a fundamental role in bacterial chemotaxis. A parallel study is also conducted using a classical rotation assay in which cell-body rotation is driven by a single flagellar motor. These investigations allow us to draw the important conclusion that during periods of counterclockwise motor rotation, which contributes to a run, all flagellar motors are strongly correlated, but during the clockwise period, which contributes to a tumble, individual motors are uncorrelated in long times. Our observation is consistent with the physical picture that formation and maintenance of a coherent flagellar bundle is provided by a single dominant flagellum in the bundle.     

Constitutively signaling fragments of Tsr, the Escherichia coli serine chemoreceptor.

Tsr, the serine chemoreceptor of Escherichia coli, has two signaling modes. One augments clockwise (CW) flagellar rotation, and the other augments counterclockwise (CCW) rotation. To identify the portion of the Tsr molecule responsible for these activities, we isolated soluble fragments of the Tsr cytoplasmic domain that could alter the flagellar rotation patterns of unstimulated wild-type cells. Residues 290 to 470 from wild-type Tsr generated a CW signal, whereas the same fragment with a single amino acid replacement (alanine 413 to valine) produced a CCW signal. The soluble components of the chemotaxis phosphorelay system needed for expression of these Tsr fragment signals were identified by epistasis analysis. Like full-length receptors, the fragments appeared to generate signals through interactions with the CheA autokinase and the CheW coupling factor. CheA was required for both signaling activities, whereas CheW was needed only for CW signaling. Purified Tsr fragments were also examined for effects on CheA autophosphorylation activity in vitro. Consistent with the in vivo findings, the CW fragment stimulated CheA, whereas the CCW fragment inhibited CheA. CheW was required for stimulation but not for inhibition. These findings demonstrate that a 180-residue segment of the Tsr cytoplasmic domain can produce two active signals. The CCW signal involves a direct contact between the receptor and the CheA kinase, whereas the CW signal requires participation of CheW as well. The correlation between the in vitro effects of Tsr signaling fragments on CheA activity and their in vivo behavioral effects lends convincing support to the phosphorelay model of chemotactic signaling.     

The bacterial flagellar switch complex is getting more complex

The mechanism of function of the bacterial flagellar switch, which determines the direction of flagellar rotation and is essential for chemotaxis, has remained an enigma for many years. Here we show that the switch complex associates with the membrane-bound respiratory protein fumarate reductase (FRD). We provide evidence that FRD binds to preparations of isolated switch complexes, forms a 1:1 complex with the switch protein FliG, and that this interaction is required for both flagellar assembly and switching the direction of flagellar rotation. We further show that fumarate, known to be a clockwise/switch factor, affects the direction of flagellar rotation through FRD. These results not only uncover a new component important for switching and flagellar assembly, but they also reveal that FRD, an enzyme known to be primarily expressed and functional under anaerobic conditions in Escherichia coli, nonetheless, has important, unexpected functions under aerobic conditions.     

Control of speed modulation (chemokinesis) in the unidirectional rotary motor of Sinorhizobium meliloti

Swimming cells of Sinorhizobium meliloti are driven by flagella that rotate only clockwise. They can modulate rotary speed (achieve chemokinesis) and reorient the swimming path by slowing flagellar rotation. The flagellar motor is energized by proton motive force, and torque is generated by electrostatic interactions at the rotor/stator (FliG/MotA-MotB) interface. Like the Escherichia coli flagellar motor that switches between counterclockwise and clockwise rotation, the S. meliloti rotary motor depends on electrostatic interactions between conserved charged residues, namely, Arg294 and Glu302 (FliG) and Arg90, Glu98 and Glu150 (MotA). Unlike in E. coli, however, Glu150 is essential for torque generation, whereas residues Arg90 and Glu98 are crucial for the chemotaxis-controlled variation of rotary speed. Substitutions of either Arg90 or Glu98 by charge-neutralizing residues or even by their smaller, charge-maintaining isologues, lysine and aspartate, resulted in top-speed flagellar rotation and decreased potential to slow down in response to tactic signalling (chemokinesis-defective mutants). The data infer a novel mechanism of flagellar speed control by electrostatic forces acting at the rotor/stator interface. These features have been integrated into a working model of the speed-modulating rotary motor.     

A putative spermidine synthase interacts with flagellar switch protein FliM and regulates motility in Helicobacter pylori

The flagellar motor is an important virulence factor in infection by many bacterial pathogens. Motor function can be modulated by chemotactic proteins and recently appreciated proteins that are not part of the flagellar or chemotaxis systems. How these latter proteins affect flagellar activity is not fully understood. Here, we identified spermidine synthase SpeE as an interacting partner of switch protein FliM in Helicobacter pylori using pull‐down assay and mass spectrometry. To understand how SpeE contributes to flagellar motility, a speE‐null mutant was generated and its motility behavior was evaluated. We found that deletion of SpeE did not affect flagellar formation, but induced clockwise rotation bias. We further determined the crystal structure of the FliM‐SpeE complex at 2.7 Å resolution. SpeE dimer binds to FliM with micromolar binding affinity, and their interaction is mediated through the β1' and β2' region of FliM middle domain. The FliM‐SpeE binding interface partially overlaps with the FliM surface that interacts with FliG and is essential for proper flagellar rotational switching. By a combination of protein sequence conservation analysis and pull‐down assays using FliM and SpeE orthologues in E. coli, our data suggest that FliM‐SpeE association is unique to Helicobacter species.     

Glucose induces delocalization of a flagellar biosynthesis protein from the flagellated pole

To survive in a continuously changing environment, bacteria sense concentration gradients of attractants or repellents, and purposefully migrate until a more favourable habitat is encountered. While glucose is known as the most effective attractant, the flagellar biosynthesis and hence chemotactic motility has been known to be repressed by glucose in some bacteria. To date, the only known regulatory mechanism of the repression of flagellar synthesis by glucose is via downregulation of the cAMP level, as shown in a few members of the family Enterobacteriaceae. Here we show that, in Vibrio vulnificus, the glucose‐mediated inhibition of flagellar motility operates by a completely different mechanism. In the presence of glucose, EIIA^Glc is dephosphorylated and inhibits the polar localization of FapA (flagellar assembly protein A) by sequestering it from the flagellated pole. A loss or delocalization of FapA results in a complete failure of the flagellar biosynthesis and motility. However, when glucose is depleted, EIIA^Glc is phosphorylated and releases FapA such that free FapA can be localized back to the pole and trigger flagellation. Together, these data provide new insight into a bacterial strategy to reach and stay in the glucose‐rich area.     

An extreme clockwise switch bias mutation in fliG of Salmonella typhimurium and its suppression by slow-motile mutations in motA and motB.

Pseudorevertants (second-site suppressor mutants) were isolated from a set of parental mutants of Salmonella with defects in the flagellar switch genes fliG and fliM. Most of the suppressing mutations lay in flagellar region IIIb of the chromosome. One fliG mutant, SJW2811, gave rise to a large number of suppressor mutations in the motility genes motA and motB, which are in flagellar region II. SJW2811, which has a three-amino-acid deletion (delta Pro-Ala-Ala) at positions 169 to 171 of FliG, had an extreme clockwise motor bias that produced inverse smooth swimming (i.e., swimming by means of clockwise rotation of a hydrodynamically induced right-handed helical bundle), and formed Mot(-)-like colonies on semisolid medium. Unlike previously reported inverse-swimming mutants, it did not show a chemotactic response to serine, and it remained inverse even in a delta che background; thus, its switch is locked in the clockwise state. The location of the mutation further underscores the conclusion from a previous study of spontaneous missense mutants (V. M. Irikura, M. Kihara, S. Yamaguchi, H. Sockett, and R. M. Macnab, J. Bacteriol. 175:802-810, 1993) that a relatively localized region in the central part of the FliG sequence is critically important for switching. All of the second-site mutations in motA and motB caused some impairment of motility, both in the pseudorevertants and in a wild-type fliG background. The mechanism of suppression of the fliG mutation by the mot mutations is complex, involving destabilization of the right-handed flagellar bundle as a result of reduced motor speed. The mutations in the MotA and MotB sequences were clustered to a considerable degree as follows: in transmembrane helices 3 and 4 of MotA and the sole transmembrane helix of MotB, at helix-membrane interfaces, in the cytoplasmic domains of MotA, and in the vicinity of the peptidoglycan binding region of the periplasmic domain of MotB. The potential importance of Lys28 and Asp33 of the MotB sequence for proton delivery to the site of torque generation is discussed.     

Correlated switch binding and signaling in bacterial chemotaxis

In Escherichia coli, swimming behavior is mediated by the phosphorylation state of the response regulator CheY. In its active, phosphorylated form, CheY exhibits enhanced binding to a switch component, FliM, at the flagellar motor, which induces a change from counterclockwise to clockwise flagellar rotation. When Ile(95) of CheY is replaced by a valine, increased clockwise rotation correlates with enhanced binding to FliM. A possible explanation for the hyperactivity of this mutant is that residue 95 affects the conformation of nearby residues that potentially interact with FliM. In order to assess this possibility directly, the crystal structure of CheY95IV was determined. We found that CheY95IV is structurally almost indistinguishable from wild-type CheY. Several other mutants with substitutions at position 95 were characterized to establish the structural requirements for switch binding and clockwise signaling at this position and to investigate a general relationship between the two properties. The various rotational phenotypes of these mutants can be explained solely by the amount of phosphorylated CheY bound to the switch, which was inferred from the phosphorylation properties of the mutant CheY proteins and their binding affinities to FliM. Combined genetic, biochemical, and crystallographic results suggest that residue 95 itself is critical in mediating the surface complementarity between CheY and FliM.     

Changing the direction of flagellar rotation in bacteria by modulating the ratio between the rotational states of the switch protein FliM

One of the major questions in bacterial chemotaxis is how the switch, which controls the direction of flagellar rotation, functions. It is well established that binding of the signaling molecule CheY to the switch protein FliM shifts the rotation from the default direction, counterclockwise, to clockwise. How this shift is done is still a mystery. Our aim in this study was to determine the correlation between the fraction of FliM molecules in the clockwise state (i.e. occupied by CheY) and the probability of clockwise rotation. For this purpose we gradually expressed, from a plasmid, a clockwise FliM mutant protein in cells that express, from the chromosome, wild-type FliM but no chemotaxis proteins. We verified that plasmid-borne FliM exchanges chromosomal FliM in the switch. Surprisingly, a substantial clockwise probability was not obtained before the large majority of the FliM molecules in the switch were clockwise molecules. Thereafter, the rise in clockwise probability was very steep. These results suggest that an increase in the clockwise probability requires a high level of FliM occupancy by CheY approximately P. They further suggest that the steep increase in clockwise rotation upon increasing CheY levels, reported in several studies, is due, at least in part, to cooperativity of post-binding interactions within the switch. We also carried out the inverse experiment, in which wild-type FliM was gradually expressed in a background of a clockwise fliM mutant. In this case, the level of the clockwise mutant protein, required for establishing a certain clockwise probability, was lower than in the original experiment. If our system (in which the ratio between the rotational states of FliM in the switch is established by slow exchange) and the native system (in which the ratio is established by fast changes in FliM occupancy) are comparable, the results suggest that hysteresis is involved in the switch function. Such a situation might reflect a damping mechanism, which prevents a situation in which fluctuations in the phosphorylation level of CheY throw the switch from one direction of rotation to the other.     

Release of flagellar filament-hook-rod complex by a Salmonella typhimurium mutant defective in the M ring of the basal body.

A Salmonella typhimurium strain possessing a mutation in the fliF gene (coding for the component protein of the M ring of the flagellar basal body) swarmed poorly on a semisolid plate. However, cells grown in liquid medium swam normally and did not show any differences from wild-type cells in terms of swimming speed or tumbling frequency. When mutant cells were grown in a viscous medium, detached bundles of flagellar filaments as long as 100 microns were formed and the cells had impaired motility. Electron microscopy and immunoelectron microscopy revealed that the filaments released from the cells had the hook and a part of the rod of the flagellar basal body still attached. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and two-dimensional gel electrophoresis showed that the rod portion of the released structures consisted of the 30-kilodalton FlgG protein. Double mutants containing this fliF mutation and various che mutations were constructed, and their behavior in viscous media was analyzed. When the flagellar rotation of the mutants was strongly biased to either a counterclockwise or a clockwise direction, detached bundles were not formed. The formation of large bundles was most extreme in mutants weakly biased to clockwise rotation.