Scientists finally cracked how bacteria's spinning motor actually works
Scientists have made significant progress in understanding how bacteria's flagellar motor operates. This molecular machine, which allows bacteria to move through water, relies on the proton motive force, a concept proposed by Peter Mitchell in 1961. After decades of research, Mike Manson has finally elucidated the motor's structure and function, confirming its evolutionary significance.
- ▪Mike Manson has studied the bacterial flagellar motor for 50 years.
- ▪The motor operates using the proton motive force, which creates a gradient of protons inside and outside the bacterial cell.
- ▪Cryo-EM studies have revealed the motor's structure, including stator rings that drive the flagellum's rotation.
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Scientists finally cracked how bacteria's spinning motor actually works Ellsworth Toohey 10:29 am Tue Apr 28, 2026 NatalieIme/shutterstock.com Mike Manson has spent 50 years at Texas A&M studying the bacterial flagellar motor — a molecular machine that spins hundreds of times per second, outpacing a race car's spinning crankshaft, to drive bacteria through water. He finally understands it. "My lifelong quest is now fulfilled," he told Quanta Magazine. "I finally understand how this thing I've been studying for 50 years actually works." The mechanism hinges on an idea that Peter Mitchell published in 1961 and spent years defending against ridicule.
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