Bacterial Flagellar Motor PL-Ring Disassembly Subcomplexes Are Widespread and Ancient
Bacterial flagellar motor PL-ring disassembly subcomplexes are widespread and ancient Mohammed Kaplana, Michael J. Sweredoskia, João P. G. L. M. Rodriguesb, Elitza I. Tochevaa,1, Yi-Wei Changa,2, Davi R. Ortegaa, Morgan Beebya,3, and Grant J. Jensena,c,4 aDivision of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125; bDepartment of Structural Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305; and cHoward Hughes Medical Institute, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 Edited by Jody W. Deming, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, and approved February 24, 2020 (received for review September 28, 2019) The bacterial flagellum is an amazing nanomachine. Understanding nine additional bacterial species, including Vibrio cholerae, Vibrio how such complex structures arose is crucial to our understanding harveyi, and Vibrio fischeri (Gammaproteobacteria with sheathed of cellular evolution. We and others recently reported that in several flagella); Hyphomonas neptunium, Agrobacterium tumefaciens,andC. Gammaproteobacterial species, a relic subcomplex comprising the crescentus (Alphaproteobacteria); Hylemonella gracilis (Betaproteo- decorated P and L rings persists in the outer membrane after bacterium); Campylobacter jejuni (Epsilonproteobacterium); and flagellum disassembly. Imaging nine additional species with cryo- Acetonema longum (Firmicute). Bioinformatics analyses further electron tomography, here, we show that this subcomplex persists show that the P- and L-ring genes are ancient and diverged sep- after flagellum disassembly in other phyla as well. Bioinformatic arately in each species (were not recently transferred horizontally). analyses fail to show evidence of any recent horizontal transfers of Together, these results suggest that the outer-membrane-sealing the P- and L-ring genes, suggesting that this subcomplex and its role of the PL-subcomplexes is ancient and widely conserved.
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