Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38992036›Full record

ArticleNature communications2024

Perturbed N-glycosylation of Halobacterium salinarum archaellum filaments leads to filament bundling and compromised cell motility.

Shahar Sofer, Zlata Vershinin, Leen Mashni, Ran Zalk, Anat Shahar, Jerry Eichler, Iris Grossman-Haham

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nature communications, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
10citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
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

10 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. The assembly rules guiding hetero-oligomeric bacterioferritin organization and their evolutionary signature.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026
    Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. How Does the Archaellum Work?Biomolecules · 2025
    Review
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. 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

7 authors.

Shahar Sofer *Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel.
Zlata Vershinin *Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel.ORCID 0000-0002-0060-693X
Leen Mashni *Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel.
Ran ZalkThe Ilse Katz Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel.ORCID 0000-0003-4251-6497
Anat ShaharThe Ilse Katz Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel.
Jerry EichlerDepartment of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel.ORCID 0000-0001-9409-8026
Iris Grossman-HahamDepartment of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel. irisgh@bgu.ac.il.ORCID 0000-0001-5764-9036

Funding

Israel Science Foundation (ISF) 414/20
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The swimming device of archaea-the archaellum-presents asparagine (N)-linked glycans. While N-glycosylation serves numerous roles in archaea, including enabling their survival in extreme environments, how this post-translational modification contributes to cell motility remains under-explored. Here, we report the cryo-EM structure of archaellum filaments from the haloarchaeon Halobacterium salinarum, where archaellins, the building blocks of the archaellum, are N-glycosylated, and the N-glycosylation pathway is well-resolved. We further determined structures of archaellum filaments from two N-glycosylation mutant strains that generate truncated glycans and analyzed their motility. While cells from the parent strain exhibited unidirectional motility, the N-glycosylation mutant strain cells swam in ever-changing directions within a limited area. Although these mutant strain cells presented archaellum filaments that were highly similar in architecture to those of the parent strain, N-linked glycan truncation greatly affected interactions between archaellum filaments, leading to dramatic clustering of both isolated and cell-attached filaments. We propose that the N-linked tetrasaccharides decorating archaellins act as physical spacers that minimize the archaellum filament aggregation that limits cell motility.

Indexed as

Archaeal ProteinsHalobacterium salinarumCell MovementCryoelectron MicroscopyCytoskeletonGlycosylationMutationPolysaccharidesProtein Processing, Post-TranslationalArchaeal ProteinsPolysaccharides

Identifiers

PMID38992036
PMCPMC11239922

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Registered trials

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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.