Bacterial motors carefully studied (Introduction)

by David Turell , Wednesday, March 30, 2016, 01:35 (3160 days ago) @ David Turell
edited by David Turell, Wednesday, March 30, 2016, 01:46

Using very advanced techniques a lab has delineated a grappling hook type motor and the workings of a flagellum type:-http://phys.org/news/2016-03-up-close-view-bacterial-motors.html-"Jensen and his colleagues used a technique called electron cryotomography to study the complexity of these cell motility nanomachines. The technique allows them to capture 3-D images of intact cells at macromolecular resolution—specifically, with a resolution that ranges from 2 to 5 nanometers (for comparison, a whole cell can be several thousand nanometers in diameter). First, the cells are instantaneously frozen so that water molecules do not have time to rearrange to form ice crystals; this locks the cells in place without damaging their structure. Then, using a transmission electron microscope, the researchers image the cells from different angles, producing a series of 2-D images that—like a computed tomography, or CT, scan—can be digitally reconstructed into a 3-D picture of the cell's structures.-***-"The Caltech team used this technique to analyze the cell motility machinery that involves a structure called the type IVa pilus machine (T4PM). This mechanism allows a bacterium to move through its environment in much the same way that Spider-Man travels between skyscrapers; the T4PM assembles a long fiber (the pilus) that attaches to a surface like a grappling hook and subsequently retracts, thus pulling the cell forward.-***-"In this study, we revealed the beautiful complexity of this machine that may be the strongest motor known in nature. The machine lets M. xanthus, a predatory bacterium, move across a field to form a 'wolf pack' with other M. xanthus cells, and hunt together for other bacteria on which to prey," Jensen says.-"Another way that bacteria move about their environment is by employing a flagellum—a long whiplike structure that extends outward from the cell. The flagellum is spun by cellular machinery, creating a sort of propeller that motors the bacterium through a substrate. However, cells that must push through the thick mucus of the intestine, for example, need more powerful versions of these motors, compared to cells that only need enough propeller power to travel through a pool of water.-"In a second paper, published in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) on March 14, Jensen and his colleagues again used electron cryotomography to study the differences between these heavy-duty and light-duty versions of the bacterial propeller. The 3-D images they captured showed that the varying levels of propeller power among several different species of bacteria can be explained by structural differences in these tiny motors.-"In order for the flagellum to act as a propeller, structures in the cell's motor must apply torque—the force needed to cause an object to rotate—to the flagellum. The researchers found that the high-power motors have additional torque-generating protein complexes that are found at a relatively wide radius from the flagellum. This extra distance provides greater leverage to rotate the flagellum, thus generating greater torque. The strength of the cell's motor was directly correlated with the number of these torque-generating complexes in the cell."-Comment: These nanomotors are so complex they have to be developed all at once. Half a motor or less is useless. Darwin doesn't work here. As Darwin's theory collapses, it has just been reported that epigenetic changes can be inherited across generations guided by small RNA's.-http://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674(16)30207-0?_returnURL=http%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0092867416302070%3Fshowall%3Dtrue-"In C. elegans, small RNAs enable transmission of epigenetic responses across multiple generations.......We now show that exposure to dsRNA activates a feedback loop whereby gene-specific RNAi responses dictate the transgenerational duration of RNAi responses mounted against unrelated genes, elicited separately in previous generations. RNA-sequencing analysis reveals that, aside from silencing of genes with complementary sequences, dsRNA-induced RNAi affects the production of heritable endogenous small RNAs, which regulate the expression of RNAi factors. Manipulating genes in this feedback pathway changes the duration of heritable silencing. Such active control of transgenerational effects could be adaptive, since ancestral responses would be detrimental if the environments of the progeny and the ancestors were different."