A tiny but powerful engine that propels the bacterium Bacillus subtilis through liquids is disengaged from the corkscrew-like flagellum by a protein clutch, scientists have learned. Scientists have ...

Scientists have studied a new target for antibiotics in the greatest detail yet – in the fight against antibiotic resistance. The ‘molecular machine’ flagellum is essential for bacteria to cause ...

We analysed L. mexicana flagellum length, structure and biochemical changes, using electron microscopy and cell lines-expressing enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) fusions of axonemal proteins, ...

When headed the wrong way, some bacteria turn by letting their propellers flop. The newly discovered turning mechanism explains how a marine bacterium can control its direction using only a single ...

Millions of people worldwide are affected by African sleeping sickness, Chagas disease and other life-threatening infections caused by microscopic parasites borne by insects such as the tsetse fly.

Many bacteria are equipped with a flagellum, a helical propeller that allows bacteria to travel. The flagellum is assembled in a highly organized manner involving the stepwise addition of each of its ...

To function properly and propel the bacterium, the flagellum requires all of its components to fit together to exacting measurements. In a new study, researchers report the eludication of a mechanism ...

It has been long been known that bacteria swim by rotating their tail-like structure called the flagellum. (See the swimming bacteria in the figure.) The rotating motion of the flagellum is powered by ...

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A tiny but powerful engine that propels the bacterium Bacillus subtilis through liquids is disengaged from the corkscrew-like flagellum by a protein clutch, Indiana University ...