An Elastic Model of Spirochete Morphology and Motility

螺旋体形态和运动的弹性模型

• 批准号: 7061331
• 负责人: CHARLES W WOLGEMUTH
• 金额: $ 22.45万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT SCH OF MED/DNT
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-05-01 至 2008-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7061331
• 关键词: Borrelia; Spirochaetales; bacteria characteristic; cell component structure /function; cell morphology; cell motility; cell wall; elasticity; flagellum; mathematical model; model design /development; periplasm

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Polymer filaments play a major role in bacterial motility and morphology. Spirochetes, bacteria that swim by rotating helical flagella that are encased within a periplasmic space (the space between the inner and outer cell membranes where the cell wall material is located), are excellent model systems to study how elastic polymer filaments coupled to a bacterial cell wall can affect motility and morphology. Rotation of the flagella induces rotation and deformations in the cell wall. Because the flagella remain within the periplasm, the elasticity of the helical flagella competes with the preferred morphology of the cell wall. How this interplay between flagella and wall elasticity leads to total cell morphology and how forces developed by the flagellar motor drive motility is poorly understood. This grant will support the broadening of elastohydrodynamics to handle systems in which two or more elastic filaments are coupled together. This new mathematical framework will then be employed to model the morphology and motility of spirochete bacteria. Through study of the static shapes predicted by this model, this work will test the experimentally justified hypothesis that the flagella and cell wall are the dominant morphological determinants in spirochete bacteria and explore how the number and length of the periplasmic flagella affect these shapes. A detailed analysis of how this system responds to external forces and torques, as would be produced by the flagellar motor, will lead to an understanding of the dynamic shape changes that spirochetes undergo while swimming. Finally, the coupling of the resulting cell conformations to the viscous fluid environment surrounding them will be investigated to quantify the propulsive force generated by the rotation of the flagellar motor for many spirochetes and also explain the precession of the flat wave morphology in Borrelia burgdorferi. This grant will also support the experimental measurement of the bending moduli of the cell wall and the periplasmic flagella.

描述（由申请人提供）：聚合物细丝在细菌运动和形态中起主要作用。螺旋体是一种通过旋转螺旋鞭毛游动的细菌，这些鞭毛被包裹在质周空间（细胞壁材料所在的内外细胞膜之间的空间）中，是研究与细菌细胞壁耦合的弹性聚合物细丝如何影响运动和形态的绝佳模型系统。鞭毛的旋转引起细胞壁的旋转和变形。由于鞭毛留在周质内，螺旋鞭毛的弹性与细胞壁的首选形态竞争。鞭毛和细胞壁弹性之间的相互作用是如何导致细胞整体形态的，以及鞭毛运动产生的力是如何驱动运动的，目前人们知之甚少。