Natures wonders: bacteria can spear amoebas (Introduction)

by David Turell , Tuesday, September 26, 2017, 00:46 (2614 days ago) @ David Turell

Further study of the structure and action of the spear. It looks irreducibly complex:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170925132856.htm

"the speargun drills a hole into the neighboring cells in only a few thousandths of a second and injects a cocktail of toxins.

"Millions of tiny microbes on leaves, stones or our skin jostle for space. And almost everywhere they have to compete for resources and nutrients. In the course of evolution, some bacteria have therefore developed a weapon to inject a toxic cocktail into competitors and rivals in their neighborhood, thus eliminating them. Among experts, this weapon resembling a speargun is also known as the type VI secretion system (T6SS).

"The speargun is composed of various components, including a sheath and a spear with a sharp tip. The sheath consists of over 200 connected cogwheel-like protein rings that are assembled around the inner rigid spear. When T6SS fires, the sheath rapidly contracts and pushes the toxic spear out of the cell, which can then penetrate into neighboring cells where it releases deadly toxins. "So far, there have only been assumptions as to how the structure of the T6SS sheath changes during contraction," says Basler. "Using cryo-electron microscopy available at C-CINA, we have now obtained an image of the spear and the extended sheath in atomic resolution."

"By comparing the structures of the extended and contracted states, the researchers were able to model how the T6SS works in detail. "During the sheath contraction, ring after ring turns and gets closer to the previous ring, while the ring diameter expands and thus releases the spear," explains Basler. "This combination of sheath shrinking and turning results in drilling a hole into the target cells. Within less than two milliseconds, the T6SS sheath contracts to half of its length and at the same time the toxic spear spirals out like a screw. Therefore, the bacteria have an extremely powerful drill."

"Furthermore, the researchers also addressed another question. After firing T6SS, bacteria re-use the individual components of the sheath to assemble a new speargun. "For a long time, it was not clear why only the contracted, but not the extended sheath is disassembled," says Basler. "Now, we could see that a certain protein domain is exposed on the surface of the sheath during contraction and can be recognized by a specific protein responsible for dismantling the sheath. In the extended sheath state, this domain is hidden and the T6SS sheath is therefore protected from disassembly."

"The bacterial speargun will continue to be the subject of future research. "One of our projects is dedicated to the question of how the T6SS is embedded in the bacterial cell envelope. As the speargun is fired with such a high force, it must be firmly anchored, otherwise firing would not work properly or could be also fatal for the weapon-carrying bacteria themselves.'"

Comment: Like the flagellum, this is a highly complex structure, which must be constructed all at once as a new organ. It would not work as a defense mechanism unless complete to begin with. A strong piece of evidence for intelligent design.