The bacterial flagellar motor is a reversible rotary nano-machine, about 45 nm in diameter, embedded in the bacterial cell envelope. It is powered by the flux of H+ or Na+ ions across the cytoplasmic membrane driven by an electrochemical gradient, the proton-motive force or the sodium-motive force. Each motor rotates a helical filament at several hundreds of revolutions per second (hertz). In many species, the motor switches direction stochastically, with the switching rates controlled by a network of sensory and signalling proteins. The bacterial flagellar motor was confirmed as a rotary motor in the early 1970s, the first direct observation of the function of a single molecular motor. However, because of the large size and complexity of the motor, much remains to be discovered, in particular, the structural details of the torque-generating mechanism. This review outlines what has been learned about the structure and function of the motor using a combination of genetics, single-molecule and biophysical techniques, with a focus on recent results and single-molecule techniques.

The bacterial flagellar motor is a rotary molecular machine that rotates the helical filaments that propel many species of swimming bacteria. The rotor is a set of rings up to 45 nm in diameter in the cytoplasmic membrane; the stator contains about ten torque-generating units anchored to the cell wall at the perimeter of the rotor. The free-energy source for the motor is an inward-directed electrochemical gradient of ions across the cytoplasmic membrane, the protonmotive force or sodium-motive force for H+-driven and Na+-driven motors, respectively. Here we demonstrate a stepping motion of a Na+-driven chimaeric flagellar motor in Escherichia coli at low sodium-motive force and with controlled expression of a small number of torque-generating units. We observe 26 steps per revolution, which is consistent with the periodicity of the ring of FliG protein, the proposed site of torque generation on the rotor. Backwards steps despite the absence of the flagellar switching protein CheY indicate a small change in free energy per step, similar to that of a single ion transit.

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The bacterial flagellar motor is a large rotary molecular machine that propels swimming bacteria, powered by a transmembrane electrochemical potential difference. It consists of an ∼50-nm rotor and up to ∼10 independent stators anchored to the cell wall. We measured torque-speed relationships of single-stator motors under 25 different combinations of electrical and chemical potential. All 25 torque-speed curves had the same concave-down shape as fully energized wild-type motors, and each stator passes at least 37 ± 2 ions per revolution. We used the results to explore the 25-dimensional parameter space of generalized kinetic models for the motor mechanism, finding 830 parameter sets consistent with the data. Analysis of these sets showed that the motor mechanism has a "powerstroke" in either ion binding or transit; ion transit is channel-like rather than carrier-like; and the rate-limiting step in the motor cycle is ion binding at low concentration, ion transit, or release at high concentration. where V m is the membrane voltage and Δμ = k B T ln(C in /C out ) and q are the transmembrane chemical potential difference and charge of the ions, respectively, with C in and C out the internal and external ion concentrations. In most species the primary form of biological free energy is the proton-motive force (PMF), the IMF for H + ions (1). Physiological PMF is typically in the range −150 mV to −200 mV, with the inside electrically negative and slightly alkaline relative to the outside. Some organisms use sodium-motive force (SMF) to drive numerous cellular processes, such as bacterial motility (2), ATP synthesis (3), and active membrane transport (4). Arguably the most important process driven by IMF is ATP synthesis, which generates cellular ATP by forced rotation of the F 1 part of F 1 F O ATP-synthase. F 1 is mechanically coupled to and rotated by F O , which like the bacterial flagellar motor (BFM) is an ion-driven rotary motor. Understanding the mechanism of these and other ion-driven molecular machines is a fundamental challenge in cellular energetics and biophysics. The BFM (Fig. 1A) is a rotary molecular machine that propels many species of swimming bacteria. It couples ion flow, for example protons (H + ) in Escherichia coli or sodium ions (Na + ) in Vibrio alginolyticus, to the rotation of extracellular helical flagellar filaments at hundreds of revolutions per second (Hz) (2, 5, 6). Torque is generated by interactions between stator complexes (containing the proteins MotA and MotB in E. coli and PomA and PomB in V. alginolyticus) and the rotor protein FliG (7). In E. coli, each motor can be powered by any number between 1 and at least 11 functionally independent stators (8), which exchange with a membrane-bound pool of "spare" stators on a timescale of minutes (9).The most important biophysical method for studying the torque-generating mechanism of the BFM has been to measure its torque-speed curves. This has been done using varying viscous load (10-14) or external torque (15, 16) to control the speed. Fu...