Spin the Wheel

These technical-looking diagrams are the plans for a highly sophisticated motor. But rather than being the kind of engine that you might find in a car or a plane, it’s a tiny molecular motor found inside Borrelia burgdorferi – the bacteria that cause Lyme disease. The motor spins a whip-like structure called a flagellum, enabling the bugs to swim around. Using an incredibly high-powered electron microscope, researchers have now been able to peer deep into the structure of this bacterial motor and work out the arrangement of the individual atoms it is built from. The orange structure at the centre is a component known as an ATPase, which generates the cellular energy to spin the surrounding ‘hub’ and ‘spokes’ that are attached to the flagellum. Mapping the intricate details of nature’s engineering could lead to the development of new drugs designed to jam the motor and treat bacterial infections more effectively.

Written by Kat Arney

Kat Arney

Writer

Dr Kat Arney is an award-winning science writer, broadcaster and public speaker, and is the founder and Creative Director of First Create The Media.

Website

• Image adapted from work by Zhuan Qin and colleagues
• Department of Microbial Pathogenesis, Microbial Sciences Institute, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
• Image originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0)
• Published in PLOS Biology, November 2018