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Steps in the Bacterial Flagellar Motor

Figure 2

Backward steps are smaller than forward steps.

A. Probability distribution of step sizes using a approximately 26-fold periodic potential (see main text), showing that backward steps are on average smaller than forward steps, in agreement with experiment. Inset: Backward steps rely on low barriers, which occur preferentially where angular steps sizes (e.g. ) are small. B–E. Forward steps immediately following or preceding backward steps are found to be smaller on average ( in the experiment, in the model) than the mean of all forward steps ( in model and experiment, black dots). Crosses denote mean and standard deviation of backward and subsequent or previous forward steps, while black dots and horizontal lines give the mean () and standard deviations of all forward steps. Note change of scale between simulation and experiment. The experimental data are from [1].

doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000540.g002