Flagellum
Structure and composition

The bacterial flagellum is made up of protein subunits of flagellin. Its shape is a 20- nanometer -thick hollow tube. It is helical and has a sharp bend just outside the outer membrane; this "hook" allows the axis of the helix to point directly away from the cell. A shaft runs between the hook and the basal body, passing through protein rings in the cell's membrane that act as bearings. Gram-positive organisms have two of these basal body rings, one in the peptidoglycan layer and one in the plasma membrane. Gram-negative organisms have four such rings: the L ring associates with the lipopolysaccharides, the P ring associates with peptidoglycan layer, the M ring is embedded in the plasma membrane, and the S ring is directly attached to the cytoplasm. The filament ends with a capping protein.

The flagellar filament is the long, helical screw that propels the bacterium when rotated by the motor, through the hook. In most bacteria that have been studied, including the gram-negative Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhimurium, Caulobacter crescentus, and Vibrio alginolyticus, the filament is made up of 11 protofilaments approximately parallel to the filament axis. Each protofilament is a series of tandem protein chains. However, Campylobacter jejuni has seven protofilaments.

The basal body has several traits in common with some types of secretory pores, such as the hollow, rod-like "plug" in their centers extending out through the plasma membrane. The similarities between bacterial flagella and bacterial secretory system structures and proteins provide scientific evidence supporting the theory that bacterial flagella evolved from the type-three secretion system (TTSS).

The atomic structure of both bacterial flagella as well as the TTSS injectisome have been elucidated in great detail, especially with the development of cryo-electron microscopy. The best understood parts are the parts between the inner and outer membrane, that is, the scaffolding rings of the inner membrane (IM), the scaffolding pairs of the outer membrane (OM), and the rod/needle (injectisome) or rod/hook (flagellum) sections.
punctuation:no_comma