Projects -Fluorescent flagella -Swimming without flagella -Gliding motility -Twitching motility -Fluorescent chemotaxis proteins -Chemotactic signaling studied by FRET -Models of the chemotactic system -Motor force generation -Switching under load

Two Mycoplasma bacteria. Gliding motility Makoto Miyata, a Professor of Biology from Osaka City University, recently spent a one-year sabbatical in our lab. He is interested in the gliding motility of Mycoplasma. These are bacteria (about 0.3 µm in diameter) that do not have outer walls, only cytoplasmic membranes. However, they do have cytoskeletal elements that give them a distinct non-spherical shape. They look like schmoos that are pulled along by their heads. How they are able to glide is a mystery. See Movies, Gliding Mycoplasma. Cytophaga. These are Gram-negative bacteria of ordinary size that move over glass at speeds of about 2μm /s. See Movies, Gliding Cytophaga. Reference Lapidus, J.R. and Berg, H.C. Gliding motility of Cytophaga sp. strain U67. J. Bacteriol. 151, 394-398 (1982). Miyata, M., Ryu, W.S. and Berg, H.C. Force and velocity of Mycoplasma mobile gliding. J. Bacteriol. 184, 1827-1831 (2002).

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Last modified Tuesday, July 23, 2008.