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Science 20 June 2008:
Vol. 320. no. 5883, pp. 1636 - 1638
DOI: 10.1126/science.1157877
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Reports

A Molecular Clutch Disables Flagella in the Bacillus subtilis Biofilm

Kris M. Blair,1 Linda Turner,2 Jared T. Winkelman,1 Howard C. Berg,2,3 Daniel B. Kearns1*

Biofilms are multicellular aggregates of sessile bacteria encased by an extracellular matrix and are important medically as a source of drug-resistant microbes. In Bacillus subtilis, we found that an operon required for biofilm matrix biosynthesis also encoded an inhibitor of motility, EpsE. EpsE arrested flagellar rotation in a manner similar to that of a clutch, by disengaging motor force-generating elements in cells embedded in the biofilm matrix. The clutch is a simple, rapid, and potentially reversible form of motility control.

1 Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA.
2 Rowland Institute at Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
3 Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: dbkearns{at}indiana.edu

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)