{"doi":"10.1371/journal.ppat.1012812","title":"FlbB forms a distinctive ring essential for periplasmic flagellar assembly and motility in Borrelia burgdorferi","abstract":"Spirochetes are a widespread group of bacteria with a distinct morphology. Some spirochetes are important human pathogens that utilize periplasmic flagella to achieve motility and host infection. The motors that drive the rotation of periplasmic flagella have a unique spirochete-specific feature, termed the collar, crucial for the flat-wave morphology and motility of the Lyme disease spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi. Here, we deploy cryo-electron tomography and subtomogram averaging to determine high-resolution in-situ structures of the B. burgdorferi flagellar motor. Comparative analysis and molecular modeling of in-situ flagellar motor structures from B. burgdorferi mutants lacking each of the known collar proteins (FlcA, FlcB, FlcC, FlbB, and Bb0236/FlcD) uncover a complex protein network at the base of the collar. Importantly, our data suggest that FlbB forms a novel periplasmic ring around the rotor but also acts as a scaffold supporting collar assembly and subsequent recruitment of stator complexes. The complex protein network based on the FlbB ring effectively bridges the rotor and 16 torque-generating stator complexes in each flagellar motor, thus contributing to the specialized motility and lifestyle of spirochetes in complex environments.","journal":"PLoS Pathogens","year":2025,"id":520297,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":5,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9483,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1389871,"name":"Md Khalesur Rahman","orcid":"0000-0002-1927-0460","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":742405,"name":"Hui Xu","orcid":"0000-0003-2927-8797","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1033188,"name":"Jian Yue","orcid":"0000-0002-0815-0092","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":342854,"name":"Wangbiao Guo","orcid":"0000-0001-5398-4910","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":89018,"name":"Joshua T. Del Mundo","orcid":"0000-0002-9806-1201","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":260633,"name":"Michal Hammel","orcid":"0000-0002-5610-9289","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":547047,"name":"Md A. Motaleb","orcid":"0000-0003-2761-5104","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":278679,"name":"Jun Liu","orcid":"0000-0003-3108-6735","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":998103,"name":"Jack M. Botting","orcid":"0009-0002-7304-3936","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":74,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:49:28.470782Z","pmid":"39777417","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}