The single flagellum of Trypanosoma brucei has been unveiled as a key player in determining cell polarity, division, size and shape. The flagellum, an appendage whose structure is conserved from ...

A tiny but powerful engine that propels the bacterium Bacillus subtilis through liquids is disengaged from the corkscrew-like flagellum by a protein clutch, scientists have learned. Scientists have ...

The African trypanosome Trypanosoma brucei is a unicellular pathogen that causes lethal sleeping sickness in humans, which is a devastating and neglected tropical disease that is endemic to vast ...

Scientists have studied a new target for antibiotics in the greatest detail yet – in the fight against antibiotic resistance. The ‘molecular machine’ flagellum is essential for bacteria to cause ...

Actually, flagella vary widely from one species to another, and some of the components can perform useful functions by themselves. They are anything but irreducibly complex It is a highly complex ...

THREE years before his death in 1805, English philosopher William Paley proposed a now-famous thought experiment. Imagine discovering a watch on the heath: how would you explain its intricate ...

When headed the wrong way, some bacteria turn by letting their propellers flop. The newly discovered turning mechanism explains how a marine bacterium can control its direction using only a single ...

It has been long been known that bacteria swim by rotating their tail-like structure called the flagellum. (See the swimming bacteria in the figure.) The rotating motion of the flagellum is powered by ...

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A tiny but powerful engine that propels the bacterium Bacillus subtilis through liquids is disengaged from the corkscrew-like flagellum by a protein clutch, Indiana University ...