Three bacterial motors. Units of torque are piconewton nanometres (pN nm).
Nanoscopic 3D imaging has revealed how different bacteria have geared their tiny propeller motors for a wide range of swimming abilities. Many bacteria swim using flagella - long tails that are attached to tiny motors made of proteins, just tens of nanometres wide. These motors spin the flagella, which work as nanoscale propellers to drive the bacterium forward. For the first time, we have been able to see and explain how these nanoscale molecular machines have evolved in bacteria to colonize new environments. Despite motors in diverse bacteria having the same core structure, different bacteria vary widely in their swimming power. For example, Campylobacter jejuni, which causes food poisoning, can swim powerfully enough to bore through the mucus that lines the gut, an environment too thick and sticky for other bacteria to push through. The reasons for these differences in swimming ability have remained obscure - until now.
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