{"title":"Rheotaxis in Mycoplasma gliding","authors":"Daisuke Nakane","doi":"10.1111/1348-0421.13090","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>This review describes the upstream-directed movement in the small parasitic bacterium <i>Mycoplasma</i>. Many <i>Mycoplasma</i> species exhibit gliding motility, a form of biological motion over surfaces without the aid of general surface appendages such as flagella. The gliding motility is characterized by a constant unidirectional movement without changes in direction or backward motion. Unlike flagellated bacteria, <i>Mycoplasma</i> lacks the general chemotactic signaling system to control their moving direction. Therefore, the physiological role of directionless travel in <i>Mycoplasma</i> gliding remains unclear. Recently, high-precision measurements under an optical microscope have revealed that three species of <i>Mycoplasma</i> exhibited rheotaxis, that is, the direction of gliding motility is lead upstream by the water flow. This intriguing response appears to be optimized for the flow patterns encountered at host surfaces. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the morphology, behavior, and habitat of <i>Mycoplasma</i> gliding, and discusses the possibility that the rheotaxis is ubiquitous among them.</p>","PeriodicalId":18679,"journal":{"name":"Microbiology and Immunology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9000,"publicationDate":"2023-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Microbiology and Immunology","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1348-0421.13090","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"IMMUNOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This review describes the upstream-directed movement in the small parasitic bacterium Mycoplasma. Many Mycoplasma species exhibit gliding motility, a form of biological motion over surfaces without the aid of general surface appendages such as flagella. The gliding motility is characterized by a constant unidirectional movement without changes in direction or backward motion. Unlike flagellated bacteria, Mycoplasma lacks the general chemotactic signaling system to control their moving direction. Therefore, the physiological role of directionless travel in Mycoplasma gliding remains unclear. Recently, high-precision measurements under an optical microscope have revealed that three species of Mycoplasma exhibited rheotaxis, that is, the direction of gliding motility is lead upstream by the water flow. This intriguing response appears to be optimized for the flow patterns encountered at host surfaces. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the morphology, behavior, and habitat of Mycoplasma gliding, and discusses the possibility that the rheotaxis is ubiquitous among them.
期刊介绍:
Microbiology and Immunology is published in association with Japanese Society for Bacteriology, Japanese Society for Virology, and Japanese Society for Host Defense Research. It is peer-reviewed publication that provides insight into the study of microbes and the host immune, biological and physiological responses.
Fields covered by Microbiology and Immunology include:Bacteriology|Virology|Immunology|pathogenic infections in human, animals and plants|pathogenicity and virulence factors such as microbial toxins and cell-surface components|factors involved in host defense, inflammation, development of vaccines|antimicrobial agents and drug resistance of microbes|genomics and proteomics.