Abstract
Campylobacter jejuni rotates a flagellum at each pole to swim through the viscous mucosa of its hosts' gastrointestinal tracts. Despite their importance for host colonization, however, how C. jejuni coordinates rotation of these two opposing flagella is unclear. As well as their polar placement, C. jejuni's flagella deviate from the norm of Enterobacteriaceae in other ways: their flagellar motors produce much higher torque and their flagellar filament is made of two different zones of two different flagellins. To understand how C. jejuni's opposed motors coordinate, and what contribution these factors play in C. jejuni motility, we developed strains with flagella that could be fluorescently labeled, and observed them by highspeed video microscopy. We found that C. jejuni coordinates its dual flagella by wrapping the leading filament around the cell body during swimming in high-viscosity media and that its differentiated flagellar filament and helical body have evolved to facilitate this wrappedmode swimming.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | e1008620 |
Journal | PLoS pathogens |
Volume | 16 |
Issue number | 7 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jul 2020 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Parasitology
- Microbiology
- Immunology
- Molecular Biology
- Genetics
- Virology