Scienceblogtwo

Researchers from the University of Virginia School of Medicine and their associates have answered a long-standing question concerning how E. coli and other bacteria may migrate. By coiling their lengthy, threadlike appendages into corkscrew shapes that serve as improvised propellers, bacteria propulsion themselves ahead. However, because the "propellers" are formed of a single protein, experts are confused as to how exactly they accomplish this. The case has been solved by an international team led by UVA's Edward H. Egelman, PhD, a pioneer in the high-tech discipline of cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM). The unique atomic-level structure of these propellers, which was invisible to a typical light microscope, was revealed by the researchers using cryo-EM and sophisticated computer modeling. "We have finally determined the structure of these filaments in atomic detail," said Egelman, of UVA's Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics. "Models ha...