Reconstitution and purification of flagellar filaments from Caulobacter crescentus.

Filaments from isolated flagella of Caulobacter crescentus have been purified by successive dissociation and reconstitution. After the second and third reconstitutions from subunits in 0.8 M sodium citrate, filament preparations contained only two proteins, flagellin A (26,000 daltons) and flagellin B (28,000 daltons). There was some enrichment for flagellin A during reconstitution by this procedure, since isolated flagella contained flagellin A and flagellin B in a ratio of approximately 3.8:1 and filaments after the third reconstitution contained the two proteins in a ratio of 5.0:1.