When headed the wrong way, some bacteria turn by letting their propellers flop. The newly discovered turning mechanism explains how a marine bacterium can control its direction using only a single ...

The single flagellum of Trypanosoma brucei has been unveiled as a key player in determining cell polarity, division, size and shape. The flagellum, an appendage whose structure is conserved from ...

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A tiny but powerful engine that propels the bacterium Bacillus subtilis through liquids is disengaged from the corkscrew-like flagellum by a protein clutch, Indiana University ...

Scientists have studied a new target for antibiotics in the greatest detail yet – in the fight against antibiotic resistance. The ‘molecular machine’ flagellum is essential for bacteria to cause ...

THREE years before his death in 1805, English philosopher William Paley proposed a now-famous thought experiment. Imagine discovering a watch on the heath: how would you explain its intricate ...

Many species of swimming bacteria have a rotary structure called a "flagellum," consisting of more than twenty different kinds of proteins. By rotating their flagellar filaments and gaining propulsion ...

Archaea use flagella known as archaella—distinct both in protein composition and structure from bacterial flagella—to drive cell motility, but the structural basis of this function is unknown. Here, ...

A tiny but powerful engine that propels the bacterium Bacillus subtilis through liquids is disengaged from the corkscrew-like flagellum by a protein clutch, scientists have learned. Scientists have ...