We examined gliding motility and cell invasion by an early-branching apicomplexan, Cryptosporidium parvum, which causes diarrheal disease in humans and animals. Real-time video microscopy demonstrated that C. parvum sporozoites undergo circular and helical gliding, two of the three stereotypical movements exhibited by Toxoplasma gondii tachyzoites. C. parvum sporozoites moved more rapidly than ...

Mutations in the tgl locus inactivate social gliding motility in Myxococcus xanthus and block production of pili. The tgl locus is distinctive among the genes for social motility because social gliding and pili can be restored transiently to tgl mutant cells by mixing them with tgl+ cells, a process known as stimulation. The tgl locus was cloned with a linked insertion of transposon Tn5 by usin...

Myxococcus xanthus is a common Gram-negative bacterium that moves by a process called gliding motility. In myxobacteria, two distinct mechanisms for gliding have been discovered. S-type motility requires the extension, attachment, and retraction of type IV pili. The other mechanism, designated as A-type motility, may be driven by the secretion and swelling of slime; however, experiments to conf...

Within Myxococcus xanthus biofilms, cells actively move and exchange their outer membrane (OM) lipoproteins and lipids. Between genetically distinct strains, OM exchange can regulate recipient cell behaviors, including gliding motility and development. Although many different proteins are thought to be exchanged, to date, only two endogenous OM lipoproteins, CglB and Tgl, are known to be transf...

Apicomplexan parasites critically depend on a unique form of gliding motility to colonize their hosts and to invade cells. Gliding requires different stage and species-specific transmembrane adhesins, which interact with an intracellular motor complex shared across parasite stages and species. How gliding is regulated by extracellular factors and intracellular signalling mechanisms is largely u...

The cell wall-less prokaryote Mycoplasma pneumoniae is a major cause of community-acquired bronchitis and pneumonia in humans. Colonization is mediated largely by a differentiated terminal organelle, which is also the leading end in gliding motility. Cytadherence-associated proteins P30 and P65 appear to traffic concurrently to the distal end of developing terminal organelles. Here, truncation ...