A quantitative model of the switch cycle of an archaeal flagellar motor and its sensory control.

By reverse-engineering we have detected eight kinetic phases of the symmetric switch cycle of the Halobacterium salinarum flagellar motor assembly and identified those steps in the switch cycle that are controlled by sensory rhodopsins during phototaxis. Upon switching the rotational sense, the flagellar motor assembly passes through a stop state from which all subunits synchronously resume rotation in the reverse direction. The assembly then synchronously proceeds through three subsequent functional states of the switch: Refractory, Competent, and Active, from which the rotational sense is switched again.

Signal processing and flagellar motor switching during phototaxis of Halobacterium salinarum.

Prokaryotic taxis, the active search of motile cells for the best environmental conditions, is one of the paradigms for signal transduction. The search algorithm implemented by the cellular biochemistry modulates the probability of switching the rotational direction of the flagellar motor, a nanomachine that propels prokaryotic cells. On the basis of the well-known biochemical mechanisms of chemotaxis in Escherichia coli, kinetic modeling of the events leading from chemoreceptor activation by ligand binding to the motility response has been performed with great success.