Function Of Flagella In Bacteria: Detailed Facts

The flagella are seen to be microscopic and are the hair like variations that consists their support in the movement of the cell. The word means whip.

The function of flagella in bacteria is used up to sense the changes in the surrounding like that of getting of the ph disturbed. The flagella might also be used up for getting there usages as a sensory organelle like in green algae.

The function of the flagella in bacteria has a complete different use than that of the eukaryotes. They have their flagella made u of the protein called the flagella. There is no need of ATP as the bacteria flagella can make the use of the proton motive forces as their energy. 

The flagellum of the bacteria are helical in shape and do rotate quick like the windmill so that the organism gets to move fast instead of just moving back and front. The bacteria E.Coli uses the movement of flagella to propel up the urethra and then leads to having an infection in the urinary tract.

Function of Flagella in Bacteria

There are quite a lot of functions of the bacteria but the specific use of it are-

Helps in locomotion of bacteria

Most of the protozoans that have flagella have either one or two of them that extends from the front part of the body. Some also have several.

There are many flagella scattered all over where the flagella are made to fuse into distinct separate clusters. The flagella movement or the locomotion takes plane wither as the planar waves or like oar like beating or in also there dimensional waves.

All of the above mentioned ways of flagella movement occurs involves contraction waves that pass via the base to the top of the flagella or in the reverse way to generate the backward and forward motion. Different waves seem to have different pattern and effect on the movement.

The planar waves that take place on the single phase they are same to that of sinusoid wave that are made as the waves goes through the top as the bacteria swims. There are also observances of symmetrical planar waves and they are abnormal.

The planar waves cases the bacteria to rotate on its own are the longitudinal area and the path of the locomotion generated shall be erratic. The movement also possesses a movement that is in opposite direction as that of the waves that propagate.

function of flagella in bacteria
Image credit- FlagellaWikipedia

Flagella serving as a sensory organ

The flagellum of the bacterium is considered to be an organ of locomotion which is driven at the base by any of the rotary motor.

The flagella of the bacteria is considered to sense the events that get to restrict the motion, eliciting the responses that are posttranscriptional or the transcriptional which allows the bacteria to get themselves adapted in general.

There are many roles performed by the bacteria and in spite of that the flagellum act as the sensory organelles in many bacteria and gives a deep understanding about the mechanism of how it works. Many of them have a antennae that is sensory with having receptors.

There are receptors located on the membrane of the flagella. In very harsh state the sensory cilia and the one that is called the primary cilia is motile and the functions are already discarded. They can be reserved to the side conditions given. The flagella are named after shape.

Along with it the spokes that are radial in shape, the dynein, the central part of the paired complex and the rest proteins are needed to get the formation to bend. The basic function can be locomotion yet they can be sensitive to many. They can be seen to witness chemical the temperature and the wetness out of the cell.

bac
Image credit- Bacteria with flagellaWikipedia

Flagella serving for reproduction rate high

The function of flagella in bacteria has many roles and is quite filamentous needed for movement.

The flagella get to reproduce by binary fission. They get to spend most of the time in their existence to feed and be mobile. There are many parasites that actually affect the heath of humans and also the economy is among the flagellates.

A flagellate has a possibility of having many or some flagella. There are several other cells which have flagella just like the mammalian sperm cell that tends to use the flagellum it has to propel it via the tract of the female reproduction system. The primary use of flagella is mobility.

There is an example of the Chlamydomonas flagella with has a striking feature. The feature is that they can transform into any sexual organelles while the process of gametogenesis.  They are seen to mediate a type of species which is focused or agglutination or adhesion reaction in between the cells that are opposite in types of mating.

For the flagella are opposing in between, this is the cause of the molecules to be called as agglutinins that are places on the surface. Flagella can also be sued for the purpose of exporting of the proteins, get to participate in the formation of biofilm and adhesion.

gam
Image credit- GametogenesisWikipedia

Flagella serving as a secretory organelle

There are different types of bacteria that have different patter for the flagella and are different in their numbers as well.

The bacteria have basal bodies which have many traits which are same to that of the pores that are secretory. It is in rod shape and is hollow and has plug in the center that extends out via the plasma membrane.

Here also quite equals trait between the structure for secretory system of bacteria and the flagella of the bacteria and also the proteins that have scientific proof helping out the theory of the bacteria flagella which evolves in form of the type three of the secretion system.

There is also a flagella assembly, where the elements of the flagella that passes via the empty cores of the bacterium body and the nascent filament of bacteria. During the assembly, the components of the proteins are added at the tip of the flagella and not at the base.

There are many that detail that the flagella cannot be made with taking into the fact that they are place for proteins. The apparatus of the flagella are the irreducibly complex.  There are also many of the proteins that can be deleted or muted and still the flagella get to function.

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