Structural Characterization at the Atomic Level of a Molecular Nano-Machine: The State of the Art of Helicobacter Pylori Flagellum Organization

摘要

Motility is fundamental for success in colonization and survival of the human pathogen H. pylori, the bacterium that colonizes about half of the human population. Motility is achieved through flagella. In this review the present structural knowledge about the organization of H. pylori flagella is summarized, considering not only the structure of its proteins, but also what is known about flagella of other Gram-negative bacteria. Despite the limited amount of structural information about the H. pylorinano-machinery, sequence alignments and homology modeling allow to investigate the unique structural properties of several H. pylori flagellar proteins.