T. Nishino et al., FLAGELLAR FORMATION DEPENDS ON MEMBRANE ACIDIC PHOSPHOLIPIDS IN ESCHERICHIA-COLI, Bioscience, biotechnology, and biochemistry, 57(10), 1993, pp. 1805-1808
Escherichia coli pgsA3 mutants deficient in acidic phospholipids were
found to be defective in flagellar formation. This was first noticed b
y the unusual protein patterns of outer membrane fractions and was con
firmed by measuring whole-cell total flagellin. pgsA3 mutants were com
pletely nonmotile. The defects were suppressed by a plasmid carrying t
he pgsA coding region. Flagellin levels and motility of null cls mutan
ts that lacked cardiolipin synthase were almost normal. We conclude th
at the flagellum synthesis in E. coli is dependent on the membrane lev
els of acidic phospholipids.