Makoto Miyata

..Sequence analysis of P1 adhesin and its orthologs showed that domain I is well conserved and that a transmembrane segment exists near the link between domains II and III...

..Mollicutes have special cytoskeletal proteins and structures that are sometimes not shared even by other mollicute species...

..Another 'inchworm model' suggested from the structural studies of a human pathogen, M. pneumoniae, is also discussed...

..The spikes were on average 50 nm in length and 4 nm in diameter, most abundant around the head, and not observed in a nonbinding mutant. The spikes may be involved in the mechanism of binding, gliding, or both...

..The gliding of Mycoplasma pneumoniae, a species distantly related to M. mobile, is also discussed...

..These results indicate that the head-like structure drags the cell body, leading us to conclude that the force for gliding is generated at the head-like structure...

..Finally, the ability to form microcolonies on surfaces was shown to correlate with the gliding activity, suggesting a certain role of gliding motility in the parasitic life-cycle of mycoplasmas...

..Other implications of these results are discussed...

..The results of N/A analysis of the 5.6-kb region showed a shift of intensity in the nascent strand signal, which suggests an upshift of fork progression velocity...

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..Immunofluorescence and immunoelectron microscopy revealed that two components are localized at the bell and another that has the structure similar to the F(1)-ATPase beta subunit is localized at the tentacles...

..This suggested that the Gli349 molecule is involved not only in glass binding for gliding but also in movement. To explain the present results, a model for the mechanical cycle of gliding is discussed...

..This analysis shows that M. mobile surprisingly expresses multiple versions of its major surface antigen at once but differentiates its surface by differential localization of the various paralogues...

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..The amino acid sequence was assigned to the molecular image, and the topology of the molecule in the gliding machinery is discussed...

..The reactivation activity and inhibition by various nucleotides and ATP analogs, as well as their kinetic parameters, showed that the machinery is driven by the hydrolysis of ATP to ADP plus phosphate, caused by an unknown ATPase...

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..Partial digestion of Gli521 showed that the molecule could be divided into three domains, which we assigned to the oval, rod, and hook of the molecular image. The Gli521 molecule's role in the gliding mechanism is discussed...

..These results suggest that there are three distinct subcellular protein localization sites in the attachment organelle, which were represented by HMW1-HMW3, P1-P90-P40, and P30-P65...

..The amino acid sequence of MvspI was mapped onto a molecular image obtained by electron microscopy. The present study is the first to elucidate the molecular shape of a variable surface protein of mycoplasma...

..mobile account for more than 12% of all surface proteins and that Mvsps, surface variants that were localized at both parts other than the neck, account for 49% of all surface proteins...

..The torque required to achieve the actual pivoting increased with the cell length without saturation, reaching 54.7 pN nm at 4.3 μm in cell length...

..Localization of the gliding proteins, Gli349 and Gli521, was disturbed in the m12 mutant, suggesting that Gli123 is essential for the positioning of gliding proteins in the cell neck...

..Sodium orthovanadate had a slight but significant inhibitory effect on gliding. Taken together, these results suggest that the motor system of M. mobile is likely an ATPase or is directly coupled to an ATPase...

..The forks developed in a 1569-bp region that consisted of the dnaA structural gene and its downstream non-coding region, and then they proceeded bidirectionally...

..The decrease in MvspI caused by the antibody binding may suggest a novel type of surface variation, designated here as "mycoplasmal antigen modulation."..

..These results support the hypothesis that the P42 protein is the key ATPase in the gliding motility of M. mobile...

..These observations showed that the expression pattern of dnaA gene in M. capricolum is different from those of walled bacteria in some aspects...

..The cytoskeletal structures of M. gallisepticum were compared with those of M. pneumoniae in detail, and the possible protein components of these structures were considered...

..The cells of M. gallisepticum presented irregular dense granules, in contrast to regular particles, which can be observed in the images of chemically fixed thin sections, in the rear portion of the cells...

..2-kb region which contains the gyrB gene, encoding the beta-subunit of gyrase from Mycoplasma capricolum. We localized gyrB opposite from the chromosomal replication origin (ori) of M. capricolum by genomic Southern hybridization...

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..Furthermore, cells loaded with streptavidin beads following biotinylation of surface proteins moved at normal speeds. These bacteria could be useful as living microtransporters, carrying cargo around within micrometer-scale spaces...

..This motor is fueled by glucose and inherits some of the properties normally attributed to living systems...

..The fluorescent-protein fusion technique may serve as a powerful tool for identifying components of cytoskeleton-like structures and the attachment organelle. It can also be used to analyze their assembly...