Revealing the secrets of motility in archaea

The protein structure of the archaellum, the motor that propels many species of Archaea, the third domain of life, has been characterized for the first time by a team from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology. A ring made of six identical proteins derives energy from hydrolyzing adenosine triphosate and uses this energy to drive shape changes, both assembling and rotating the archaellum’s whiplike propeller.

Fuente : http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-02/dbn…