Abstract
Recent studies on archaeal motility have shown that the archaeal motility structure is unique in several aspects. Although it fulfills the same swimming function as the bacterial flagellum, it is evolutionarily and structurally related to the type IV pilus. This was the basis for the recent proposal to term the archaeal motility structure the “archaellum.” This review illustrates the key findings that led to the realization that the archaellum was a novel motility structure and presents the current knowledge about the structural composition, mechanism of assembly and regulation, and the posttranslational modifications of archaella.
Highlights
Reviewed by: Blanca Barquera, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA Romé Voulhoux, Aix-Marseille University, France Lori L
This review provides an historical account of the investigations on the archaeal motility structure ending with current studies on the regulation of archaella flagella biosynthesis and determination of the roles of some of the specific components in assembly and function of the organelle
With the realization that archaeal flagella were a rotating variant of type IV pili with no evolutionary relationship to bacterial flagella, we proposed that this prokaryotic motility structure be designated the archaellum (Jarrell and Albers, 2012), a distinct name that fuses the concept of Archaea and flagellum and readily allows for similar terms common in the bacterial flagella field to be used in archaea
Summary
Reviewed by: Blanca Barquera, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA Romé Voulhoux, Aix-Marseille University, France Lori L. Sequencing of genes located downstream of the flagellin genes revealed the presence of two genes that encoded homologues to key components of the type IV pili assembly system, namely a PilB-like polymerizing ATPase (termed FlaI) and the conserved membrane/platform protein (FlaJ; Bayley and Jarrell, 1998; Peabody et al, 2003).
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