Department of Molecular Biosciences, LaMontagne Center for Infectious Diseases, University of Texas at Austin, TX 78712.
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2024 Oct 8;121(41):e2412541121. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2412541121. Epub 2024 Oct 1.
Flagella are highly complex rotary molecular machines that enable bacteria to not only migrate to optimal environments but also to promote range expansion, competitiveness, virulence, and antibiotic survival. Flagellar motility is an energy-demanding process, where the sum of its production (biosynthesis) and operation (rotation) costs has been estimated to total ~10% of the entire energy budget of an cell. The acquisition of such a costly adaptation process is expected to secure short-term benefits by increasing competitiveness and survival, as well as long-term evolutionary fitness gains. While the role of flagellar motility in bacterial survival has been widely reported, its direct influence on the rate of evolution remains unclear. We show here that both production and operation costs contribute to elevated mutation rates. Our findings suggest that flagellar movement may be an important player in tuning the rate of bacterial evolution.
鞭毛是高度复杂的旋转分子机器，使细菌不仅能够迁移到最佳环境，还能够促进其范围的扩大、竞争力的增强、毒力的提高以及抗生素的存活。鞭毛运动是一个耗能过程，其产生（生物合成）和运行（旋转）的总成本估计占细胞总能量预算的~10%。这种昂贵的适应过程的获得有望通过提高竞争力和生存能力来获得短期利益，以及长期的进化适应性收益。虽然鞭毛运动在细菌生存中的作用已被广泛报道，但它对进化速度的直接影响尚不清楚。我们在这里表明，生物合成和运行成本都有助于提高突变率。我们的研究结果表明，鞭毛运动可能是调节细菌进化速度的一个重要因素。
