Dp. Bayley et al., EFFECT OF BACITRACIN ON FLAGELLAR ASSEMBLY AND PRESUMED GLYCOSYLATIONOF THE FLAGELLINS OF METHANOCOCCUS-DELTAE, Archives of microbiology, 160(3), 1993, pp. 179-185
Methanococeus deltae is an irregularly-shaped coccoid methanogen which
possesses peritrichously arranged flagella. The flagella are composed
of 2 flagellins of M(r) = 27000 and 32000 and possess a carbohydrate
component as determined by thymol-sulfuric acid staining of SDS-PAGE.
Cell growth was sensitive to bacitracin at levels near 10 mug/ml. Grow
th in the presence of 5 mug/ml bacitracin resulted in the appearance o
f presumably hypoglycosylated flagellins as detected by Western immuno
blotting. Continual passage of cells from 5 mug/ml bacitracin through
10, 25, and 50 mug/ml bacitracin resulted in cells capable of growth a
t 100 mug/ml bacitracin. Western immunoblot analysis revealed that cel
ls grown in the highest concentration of bacitracin no longer possesse
d native' flagellins but only the hypoglycosylated forms. Electron mic
roscopy corroborated the absence of normal flagella. These studies sug
gest that a bacitracin-sensitive dolichol-diphosphate carrier is respo
nsible for attachment of at least a large proportion of the carbohydra
te content of the flagellins, and that a minimum amount of glycosylati
on is essential for normal flagellum assembly.