ArticleThe EMBO journal2011
An infrequent molecular ruler controls flagellar hook length in Salmonella enterica.
Article in The EMBO journal, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 83 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
83 citing papers in PubMed.
- Active removal of inhibitory components drives the flagellar type 3 secretion-specificity switch.mBio · 2026Article
- Active removal of inhibitory components drives the flagellar Type III Secretion Specificity Switch.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Article
- Ultraweak interactions drive cap-mediated positioning and elongation of the bacterial flagellar filament.Nature communications · 2025Article
- The impact of the flagellar protein genemSphere · 2025Article
- Structure and Dynamics of the Bacterial Flagellar Motor Complex.Biomolecules · 2024Review
- FlaG competes with FliS-flagellin complexes for access to FlhA in the flagellar T3SS to controlProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- FlhE functions as a chaperone to prevent formation of periplasmic flagella in Gram-negative bacteria.Nature communications · 2024Article
- FliH and FliI help FlhA bring strict order to flagellar protein export in Salmonella.Communications biology · 2024Article
- Structure, Assembly, and Function of Flagella Responsible for Bacterial Locomotion.EcoSal Plus · 2023Review
- Virulence-associated type III secretion systems in Gram-negative bacteria.Microbiology (Reading, England) · 2023Review
- Targeting early proximal-rod component substrate FlgB to FlhB for flagellar-type III secretion in Salmonella.PLoS genetics · 2022Article
- Novel transient cytoplasmic rings stabilize assembling bacterial flagellar motors.The EMBO journal · 2022Article
- Activation mechanism of the bacterial flagellar dual-fuel protein export engine.Biophysics and physicobiology · 2022Article
- Insight Into Distinct Functional Roles of the Flagellar ATPase Complex for Flagellar Assembly inFrontiers in microbiology · 2022Review
- Article
- Robustness and the evolution of length control strategies in the T3SS and flagellar hook.Biophysical journal · 2021Article
- Molecular and Cell Biological Analysis of SwrB in Bacillus subtilis.Journal of bacteriology · 2021Article
- Molecular ruler of the attachment organelle in Mycoplasma pneumoniae.PLoS pathogens · 2021Article
- The FlhA linker mediates flagellar protein export switching during flagellar assembly.Communications biology · 2021Article
23 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The bacterial flagellum consists of a long external filament connected to a membrane-embedded basal body at the cell surface by a short curved structure called the hook. In Salmonella enterica, the hook extends 55 nm from the cell surface. FliK, a secreted molecular ruler, controls hook length. Upon hook completion, FliK induces a secretion-specificity switch to filament-type substrate secretion. Here, we demonstrate that an infrequent ruler mechanism determines hook length. FliK is intermittently secreted during hook polymerization. The probability of the specificity switch is an increasing function of hook length. By uncoupling hook polymerization from FliK expression, we illustrate that FliK secretion immediately triggers the specificity switch in hooks greater than the physiological length. The experimental data display excellent agreement with a mathematical model of the infrequent ruler hypothesis. Merodiploid bacteria expressing simultaneously short and long ruler variants displayed hook-length control by the short ruler, further supporting the infrequent ruler model. Finally, the velocity of FliK secretion determines the probability of a productive FliK interaction with the secretion apparatus to change secretion substrate specificity.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.