Cited by 23Bacterial Genetics and BiotechnologyEnzyme Structure and FunctionAdvanced Electron Microscopy Techniques and Applications

Structural diversity and clustering of bacterial flagellar outer domains

Open access
Fields, Jessie Lynda, Zhang, Hua, Bellis, Nathan F., Petersen, Holly A., Halder, Sajal K., Rich-New, Shane T., Krupovic, Mart, Wu, Hui +1 more·2024·Nature Communications

Published version of a preprint

Abstract

Supercoiled flagellar filaments function as mechanical propellers within the bacterial flagellum complex, playing a crucial role in motility. Flagellin, the building block of the filament, features a conserved inner D0/D1 core domain across different bacterial species. In contrast, approximately half of the flagellins possess additional, highly divergent outer domain(s), suggesting varied functional potential. In this study, we report atomic structures of flagellar filaments from three distinct bacterial species: Cupriavidus gilardii, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, and Geovibrio thiophilus. Our findings reveal that the flagella from the facultative anaerobic G. thiophilus possesses a significantly more negatively charged surface, potentially enabling adhesion to positively charged minerals. Furthermore, we analyze all AlphaFold predicted structures for annotated bacterial flagellins, categorizing the flagellin outer domains into 682 structural clusters. This classification provides insights into the prevalence and experimental verification of these outer domains. Remarkably, two of the flagellar structures reported herein belong to a distinct cluster, indicating additional opportunities on the study of the functional diversity of flagellar outer domains. Our findings underscore the complexity of bacterial flagellins and open up possibilities for future studies into their varied roles beyond motility.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1038/s41467-024-53923-w

Cites

92 of 92 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

2 of the 94 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Fields, J. L., Zhang, H., Bellis, N. F., Petersen, H. A., Halder, S. K., Rich-New, S. T., Krupovic, M., Wu, H., & Wang, F.
Affiliations
  • University of Alabama at Birmingham (US)
  • Oregon Health & Science University (US)
Corresponding author
  • Wu, Hui
  • Wang, Fengbin
Venue
Nature Communications
Published
2024-11-03
Volume
15
Issue
1
Pages
9500-9500
ISSN
2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W4404010269
Cited by
23
References
94
Citations by year
2026: 11 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 1
FWCI
6.10
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature Communications (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • HAL (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed Central (submittedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
  • U.S. Department of Energy (DESC0020322)
  • Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research (75N91019D00024)
  • National Institutes of Health (1s10od024978-01a1)
  • National Cancer Institute (75N91019D00024, P30CA013148)
  • National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R00GM138756, K99GM138756)
  • National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (R01DE028329, R01DE022350, T90DE030859)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Bacterial Genetics and Biotechnology
  • Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Materials Chemistry › Enzyme Structure and Function
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Structural Biology › Advanced Electron Microscopy Techniques and Applications
Keywords
bacterial flagellum, flagellin, structural clustering, Cupriavidus gilardii, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, surface charge, bacterial motility, AlphaFold predictions

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review