Abstract
Many bacteria swim by rotating their helical flagellar filaments which are driven by flagellar motors embedded in the cell membranes. In mechanical engineering, bacterial swimming is an interesting subtopic of robotics and nano-mechanics since countless nano-machines made of bio-molecules are packed into 1 µm cells. In this paper, we present three exceptionally interesting facts about swimming bacteria, which have been known for the past decade. First, a flagellar motor rotates extremely fast (the maximum recorded is 1,700 rps). This information produces many new questions regarding, for example, the torque generation mechanism and the wear. The second fact concerns the flagellar filament as an intelligent material. It is sufficiently rigid for a use as a propeller and yet can change its helical form to relax the stress when an excessive force acts on it. The mechanism is now being explored at an atomic level. The last fact is that bacterial cells sometimes swim well in viscous environments. This phenomenon contradicts common knowledge but could be explained by a new hypothesis in which the effect of the polymer network on the bacterial motion was expressed mathematically. We were impressed by the acumen of bacteria. (Review)
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Asakura S (1970) Polymerization of flagellin and polymorphism of flagella, Advance in Biophysics (Japan) 1:99–155.
Berg HC (2003) The rotary motor of bacterial flagella, Annu Rev Biochem 72:1954.
Berg HC, Anderson RA (1973) Bacteria swim by rotating their flagellar filaments, Nature 245:380–382.
Berg HC, Turner L (1979) Movement of microorganisms in viscous environments, Nature 278:349–351.
Berry RM, Armitage JP (1999) The bacterial flagellar motor, Advances in Microbial Physiology 41:291–337.
Calladine CR (1975) Construction of bacterial flagella, Nature 225:121–124.
Calladine CR (1976) Design requirements for the construction of bacterial flagella, J Theor Biol 57:469–489.
Calladine CR (1978) Change of waveform in bacterial flagella: The role of mechanics at the molecular level, J Mol Biol 118:457–479.
Gray J, Hancock GJ (1955) The propulsion of sea-urchin spermatozoa, J Exp Biol 32:802–814.
Greenberg EP, Canale-Parola E (1977a) Relationship between cell coiling and motility of spirochetes in viscous environments, J Bacterid 131:960–969.
Greenberg EP, Canale-Parola E (1977b) Motility of flagellated bacteria in viscous environments, J Bacterid 132:356–358.
Hancock GJ (1953) The self-propulsion of microscopic organisms through liquids, Proceedings of Royal Society in London, A 217:96–121.
Holwill MEJ, Burge RE (1963) A hydrodynamic study of the motility of flagellated bacteria, Arch Biochem Biophys 101:249–260.
Hotani H (1982) Micro-video study of moving bacterial flagellar filaments III Cyclic transformation induced by mechanical force, J Mol Biol 156:791–806.
Kaiser GE, Doetsch RN (1975) Enhanced translational motion of Leptospira in viscous environments, Nature 255:656–657.
Kamiya R, Asakura S (1976) Helical transformations of Salmonella flagella in vitro, J Mol Biol 106:167–186.
Kamiya R, Asakura S (1977) Flagellar transformation at alkaline pH, J Mol Biol 108:513–518.
Kudo S, Magariyama M, Aizawa S-I (1990) Abrupt changes in flagellar rotation observed by laser dark-field microscopy, Nature 346:677–680.
Lowe G, Meister M, Berg HC (1987) Rapid rotation of flagellar bundles in swimming bacteria, Nature 325:637–640.
Macnab RM, Ornston MK (1977) Normal-to-curly flagellar transitions and their role in bacteria, J Mol Biol 112:1–30.
Magariyama Y, Kudo S (2002) A mathematical explanation of an increase in bacterial swimming speed with viscosity in linear-polymer solutions, Biophys J 83:733–739.
Magariyama Y, Sugiyama S, Muramoto K, Maekawa Y, Kawagishi I, Imae Y, Kudo S (1994) Very fast flagellar rotation, Nature 371:752.
Mimori Y, Yamashita I, Murata K, Fujiyoshi Y, Yonekura K, Toyoshima C, Namba K (1995) The structure of the R-type straight flagellar filament of Salmonella at 9 A resolution by electron cryomicroscopy, J Mol Biol 249:6987.
Mimori-Kiyosue Y, Vonderviszt F, Namba K (1997) Locations of terminal segments of flagellin in the filament structure and their roles in polymerization and polymorphism, J Mol Biol 270:222–237.
Mimori-Kiyosue Y, Vonderviszt F, Yamashita I, Fujiyoshi Y, Namba K (1996) Direct interaction of flagellin termini essential for polymorphic ability of flagellar filament, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 93:15108–15113.
Mimori-Kiyosue Y, Yamashita I, Fujiyoshi Y, Yamaguchi S, Namba K (1998) Role of the outermost subdomain of Salmonella flagellin in the filament structure revealed by electron cryomicroscopy, J Mol Biol 284:521–530.
Morgan DG, Owen C, Melanson LA, DeRosier DJ (1995) Structure of bacterial flagellar filament at 11 A resolution: Packing of the a-helices, J Mol Biol 249:88–110.
Samatey FA, Imada K, Nagashima S, Vonderviszt F, Kumasaka T, Yamamoto M, Namba K (2001) Structure of the bacterial flagellar protofilament and implications for a switch for supercoiling, Nature 410:331–337.
Samatey FA, Imada K, Vonderviszt F, Shirakihara Y, Namba K (2000) Crystallization of the F41 fragment of flagellin and data collection from extremely thin crystals, J Struct Biol 132:106–111.
Schneider WR, Doetsch RN (1974) Effect of viscosity on bacterial motility, J Bacteriol 117:691–701.
Shoesmith JG (1960) The measurement of bacterial motility, J Gen Microbiol 22:528–535.
Silverman M, Simon M (1974) Flagellar rotation and the mechanism of bacterial motility, Nature 249:73–74.
Strength WJ, Isami B, Linn DM, Williams FD, Vandermolen GE, Laughon BE, Krieg NR (1976) Isolation and characterization of Aquaspirillum fasciculus sp. Nov., a rod-shaped, nitrogen-fixing bacterium having unusual flagella, Int J Syst Bacteriol 26:253–268.
Yamashita I, Hasegawa K, Suzuki H, Vonderviszt F, Mimori-Kiyosue Y, Namba K (1988) Structure and switching of bacterial flagellar filaments studied by X-ray fiber diffraction, Nature Struct Biol 5:125–132.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2004 Springer Japan
About this paper
Cite this paper
Magariyama, Y., Kudo, S., Goto, T., Takano, Y. (2004). An Engineering Perspective on Swimming Bacteria:High-Speed Flagellar Motor, Intelligent Flagellar Filaments, and Skillful Swimming in Viscous Environments. In: Kato, N., Ayers, J., Morikawa, H. (eds) Bio-mechanisms of Swimming and Flying. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-53951-3_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-53951-3_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Tokyo
Print ISBN: 978-4-431-67963-9
Online ISBN: 978-4-431-53951-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive