REVIEW: Flagella of Halophilic Archaea: Differences in Supramolecular Organization

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A. S. Syutkin, M. G. Pyatibratov^*, and O. V. Fedorov^*

Institute of Protein Research, Russian Academy of Sciences, 142290 Pushchino, Moscow Region, Russia; E-mail: mikhailpyatibratov@gmail.com; bratov@vega.protres.ru; fedorov@vega.protres.ru

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received September 25, 2014

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Archaeal flagella are similar functionally to bacterial flagella, but structurally they are completely different. Helical archaeal flagellar filaments are formed of protein subunits called flagellins (archaellins). Notwithstanding progress in studies of archaeal flagella achieved in recent years, many problems in this area are still unsolved. In this review, we analyze the formation of these supramolecular structures by the example of flagellar filaments of halophilic archaea. Recent data on the structure of the flagellar filaments demonstrate that their supramolecular organization differs considerably in different haloarchaeal species.

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KEY WORDS: archaea, flagella, archaella, flagellin, supramolecular structure, halophilic

DOI: 10.1134/S0006297914130033

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