Bacterial locomotion revealed! ...and stoppable!

Darkfrog submitted, created time 4 months 4 weeks (www.nature.com)

Bacteria have two forms, free-swimming and sessile. It is during this stationary biofilm stage that they cause the most trouble, building up on scientific and medical equipment and forming huge, multi-species colonies or worse--building up in the lungs of people with cystic fibrosis. We've known for years that bacteria have to shut down their flagella to form biofilms, but now we have an idea of how it's done. The gene in question is called epsE

The article describes the molecular motor function as more of a clutch than a brake, but we didn't have auto shop at my high school. Anyone care to enlighten me on the parallel?

Keywords: bacterial locomotion cystic fibrosis biofilms flagellae epsE bacteria