The study shows that in liquid environments, where bacteria rely on movement to navigate, the rotation of flagella acts as a mechanical signal that turns on a set of genes required for DNA transfer.

An underwater robot can delicately propel itself in any direction with its 12 flexible arms, inspired by the flagella of bacteria. Its creators claim it can carry out underwater inspections ...

Most bacteria have flagella; they are threadlike appendages extending from the surface of many microbes. They help move the organism around, a function called motility, in a rotating motion. Enabling ...

Protruding from many bacteria are long spiral propellers attached to motors that drive their rotation. The only way the flagellum could have arisen, some claim, is by design. Each flagellum is ...

Their study, published in Microbiological Research, reveals that bacteria can evolve by losing their flagella, the structures responsible for movement. Flagella are important for bacteria because ...

About half of known bacteria species use a flagella to move — a rotating appendage that functions like a propellor. The flagella have motors behind them with tiny cylinders that look almost mechanical ...

Bacteria can have one or many flagella, which are made up of thousands of subunits, and although those subunits are all the same, they don't form an inflexible string, or a uniform structure. Instead, ...

Among the most important PAMPs is flagellin, the main protein in bacterial flagella—the whip-like structures bacteria use to propel themselves. "Early detection of the enemy is a central tenet ...

The research team discovered that the rotation of flagella in Bacillus subtilis acts as a mechanical signal that activates key conjugation genes. This enables donor bacteria to form clusters with ...