Fig. 7: A schematic model describing the impact of N-linked tetrasaccharide trimming on interactions between archaellum filaments. | Nature Communications

Fig. 7: A schematic model describing the impact of N-linked tetrasaccharide trimming on interactions between archaellum filaments.

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

Fig. 7

Cryo-EM maps of archaellum filaments from the three strains addressed here are shown, with the densities corresponding to N-linked glycans colored red. Two maps of filaments from each strain were manually placed side by side to illustrate their possible interactions and potential clashes (depicted as yellow halos). While the N-linked tetrasaccharides associated with wild-type archaellum filaments would be the first point of contact between filaments and thus prevent protein–protein interactions due to electrostatic repulsion and/or steric interference, the shorter tri- or disaccharides attached to filaments from the Δagl27 and Δagl26 strains, respectively, would not be able to prevent such interactions to the same extent. As a result, wild-type archaellum filaments can separate, whereas filaments comprising archaellins bearing truncated N-linked glycans in the mutant strains would instead bundle.

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