ArticleBiophysical journal2009
The elastic basis for the shape of Borrelia burgdorferi.
Article in Biophysical journal, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 43 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
43 citing papers in PubMed, 76 citations in OpenAlex.
- Peptidoglycan architecture dictates protein interactions, tissue tropism, and arthritis in the Lyme disease spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi.PLoS pathogens · 2026Article
- FlbB forms a distinctive ring essential for periplasmic flagellar assembly and motility in Borrelia burgdorferi.PLoS pathogens · 2025Article
- The unusual cell wall of the Lyme disease spirochaete Borrelia burgdorferi is shaped by a tick sugar.Nature microbiology · 2021Article
- Article
- A new kind of beat.eLife · 2021Article
- Article
- FlhF regulates the number and configuration of periplasmic flagella in Borrelia burgdorferi.Molecular microbiology · 2020Article
- Spirochete Flagella and Motility.Biomolecules · 2020Review
- An asymmetric sheath controls flagellar supercoiling and motility in the leptospira spirochete.eLife · 2020Article
- Analysis of a flagellar filament cap mutant reveals that HtrA serine protease degrades unfolded flagellin protein in the periplasm of Borrelia burgdorferi.Molecular microbiology · 2019Article
- The swimming of a deforming helix.The European physical journal. E, Soft matter · 2018Article
- Review
- Peptide Uptake Is Essential formBio · 2017Article
- Vancomycin Reduces Cell Wall Stiffness and Slows Swim Speed of the Lyme Disease Bacterium.Biophysical journal · 2017Article
- Periplasmic flagella in Borrelia burgdoferi function to maintain cellular integrity upon external stress.PloS one · 2017Article
- Determinants of Bacterial Morphology: From Fundamentals to Possibilities for Antimicrobial Targeting.Frontiers in microbiology · 2017Review
- Diversity Takes Shape: Understanding the Mechanistic and Adaptive Basis of Bacterial Morphology.PLoS biology · 2016Article
- Lyme disease and relapsing fever Borrelia elongate through zones of peptidoglycan synthesis that mark division sites of daughter cells.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2016Article
- Staying in Shape: the Impact of Cell Shape on Bacterial Survival in Diverse Environments.Microbiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR · 2016Review
- Helicobacter pylori strains vary cell shape and flagellum number to maintain robust motility in viscous environments.Molecular microbiology · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The mechanisms that determine bacterial shape are in many ways poorly understood. A prime example is the Lyme disease spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi (B. burgdorferi), which mechanically couples its motility organelles, helical flagella, to its rod-shaped cell body, producing a striking flat-wave morphology. A mathematical model is developed here that accounts for the elastic coupling of the flagella to the cell cylinder and shows that the flat-wave morphology is in fact a natural consequence of the geometrical and material properties of the components. Observations of purified periplasmic flagella show two flagellar conformations. The mathematical model suggests that the larger waveform flagellum is the more relevant for determining the shape of B. burgdorferi. Optical trapping experiments were used to measure directly the mechanical properties of these spirochetes. These results imply relative stiffnesses of the two components, which confirm the predictions of the model and show that the morphology of B. burgdorferi is completely determined by the elastic properties of the flagella and cell body. This approach is applicable to a variety of other structures in which the shape of the composite system is markedly different from that of the individual components, such as coiled-coil domains in proteins and the eukaryotic axoneme.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.