AUTHOR=Näther-Schindler Daniela J. , Schopf Simone , Bellack Annett , Rachel Reinhard , Wirth Reinhard 

TITLE=Pyrococcus furiosus flagella: biochemical and transcriptional analyses identify the newly detected flaB0 gene to encode the major flagellin

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=Volume 5 - 2014

YEAR=2014

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2014.00695

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2014.00695

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=We have described previously that the flagella of the Euryarchaeon <i>Pyrococcus furiosus</i> are multifunctional cell appendages used for swimming, adhesion to surfaces and formation of cell-cell connections. Here, we characterize these organelles with respect to their biochemistry and transcription. Flagella were purified by shearing from cells followed by CsCl-gradient centrifugation and were found to consist mainly of a ca. 30 kDa glycoprotein. Polymerization studies of denatured flagella resulted in an ATP-independent formation of flagella-like filaments. N-terminal sequencing of the main flagellin revealed an unexpected N-terminus. Therefore, we resequenced the respective region of the genome, thereby discovering that the published genome sequence is not correct. A total of 771 bp are missing in the data base, resulting in the fact that a total of three flagellin genes are present. To keep in line with the earlier nomenclature we call these <i>flaB0</i>, <i>flaB1</i>, and <i>flaB2</i>. Very interestingly, the previously not identified <i>flaB0</i> codes for the major flagellin. Transcriptional analyses of the newly defined flagellar operon identified various different transcripts depending on the growth phase.