Evidence map›Paper›PMID 21931562›Full record

ArticlePLoS genetics2011

Emergence and modular evolution of a novel motility machinery in bacteria.

Jennifer Luciano, Rym Agrebi, Anne Valérie Le Gall, Morgane Wartel, Francesca Fiegna, Adrien Ducret, Céline Brochier-Armanet, Tâm Mignot

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in PLoS genetics, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 56 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
56citing papers in PubMed
4.8field-weighted citation impact, top 4% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

56 citing papers in PubMed, 95 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Microbiology spectrum · 2026
    Article
  2. Article
  3. Milestones in the development ofJournal of bacteriology · 2025
    Review
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Tunable force transduction through theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023
    Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Review
  14. Article
  15. Article
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  17. Article
  18. Review
  19. MotAB-like machinery drives the movement of MreB filaments during bacterial gliding motility.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2018
    Article
  20. Force generation by groups of migrating bacteria.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2017
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.

Jennifer LucianoInstitut de Microbiologie de la Méditerranée (IFR88)-Laboratoire de Chimie Bactérienne, CNRS UPR 9043, Marseille, France.
Rym Agrebi
Anne Valérie Le Gall
Morgane Wartel
Francesca Fiegna
Adrien Ducret
Céline Brochier-Armanet
Tâm Mignot
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique · FRAix-Marseille Université · FRInstitut de Microbiologie de la Méditerranée · FRLaboratoire de Chimie Bactérienne · FR

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Bacteria glide across solid surfaces by mechanisms that have remained largely mysterious despite decades of research. In the deltaproteobacterium Myxococcus xanthus, this locomotion allows the formation stress-resistant fruiting bodies where sporulation takes place. However, despite the large number of genes identified as important for gliding, no specific machinery has been identified so far, hampering in-depth investigations. Based on the premise that components of the gliding machinery must have co-evolved and encode both envelope-spanning proteins and a molecular motor, we re-annotated known gliding motility genes and examined their taxonomic distribution, genomic localization, and phylogeny. We successfully delineated three functionally related genetic clusters, which we proved experimentally carry genes encoding the basal gliding machinery in M. xanthus, using genetic and localization techniques. For the first time, this study identifies structural gliding motility genes in the Myxobacteria and opens new perspectives to study the motility mechanism. Furthermore, phylogenomics provide insight into how this machinery emerged from an ancestral conserved core of genes of unknown function that evolved to gliding by the recruitment of functional modules in Myxococcales. Surprisingly, this motility machinery appears to be highly related to a sporulation system, underscoring unsuspected common mechanisms in these apparently distinct morphogenic phenomena.

Indexed as

Models, BiologicalBiological EvolutionGenes, BacterialLocomotionMyxococcus xanthusPhylogenySpores, Bacterial

Identifiers

PMID21931562
PMCPMC3169522
OpenAlexW2039361286

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.