Nakamura Shuichi
Department of Applied Physics, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University.
Nihon Saikingaku Zasshi. 2014;69(3):527-38. doi: 10.3412/jsb.69.527.
Spirochetes have flagella within the cell body and swim by wriggling the spiral cell body. Besides they have been known to be critical agents causing various infectious diseases, their eccentric appearances and motilities have been attracting many scientists in a wide variety of fields other than bacteriologists. Unlike externally flagellated bacteria that swim by using flagella as a screw propeller, spirochetes progress in a liquid by changing their cell shapes. To understand the unique motion mechanism of spirochetes, many experiments and theoretical studies are being carried out. In this review, I will summarize morphological and motile properties of various species of spirochete, such as Borrelia, Treponema and Brachyspira. I will also expound on the motion mechanism of Leptospira with our latest results obtained by high-resolution optical photometry.
螺旋体在细胞体内有鞭毛，并通过扭动螺旋状的细胞体来游动。除了它们是已知的导致各种传染病的关键病原体外，它们奇特的外观和运动方式也吸引了细菌学家以外众多不同领域的科学家。与通过将鞭毛用作螺旋桨来游动的外部有鞭毛细菌不同，螺旋体通过改变其细胞形状在液体中前进。为了理解螺旋体独特的运动机制，人们正在进行许多实验和理论研究。在这篇综述中，我将总结各种螺旋体物种的形态和运动特性，如疏螺旋体属、密螺旋体属和短螺旋体属。我还将根据我们通过高分辨率光学光度法获得的最新结果阐述钩端螺旋体的运动机制。
