What this is
Canonical name: Bacterial flagellar motility and assembly. 1
Known aliases: flagellum-dependent cell motility; flagellum assembly; bacterial-type flagellum; flagellum-dependent swarming; flagellar motility. 1
Stable external identifiers: GO:0071973 (flagellum-dependent cell motility), GO:0044780 (flagellum assembly), GO:0009288 (bacterial-type flagellum), and GO:0071978 (flagellum-dependent swarming). 1
Evidence from AMR cofitness networks
Flagellum-dependent cell motility was significantly enriched in AMR cofitness neighborhoods in 5 organisms, with a mean odds ratio of 4.7. 1
Flagellum assembly was significantly enriched in 5 organisms, with a mean odds ratio of 5.3. 1
Bacterial-type flagellum was significantly enriched in 4 organisms, with a mean odds ratio of 4.9. 1
Flagellum-dependent swarming was significantly enriched in 4 organisms, with a mean odds ratio of 5.0. 1
Across AMR mechanisms, flagellar motility occurred in 53–61% of organisms. 1
The enrichment supports the condition-specific-fitness interpretation that cofitness neighborhoods can reflect condition-specific shared dispensability rather than direct co-regulation. 1
The core-gene trade-off analysis supports this condition-specific interpretation: Motility genes showed a +7.8 percentage-point higher burden for core than non-core genes, indicating that conserved motility functions can be costly in laboratory conditions while remaining conditionally valuable. 2
Interpretation and limitations
The report does not establish that AMR genes directly regulate flagellar motility or assembly, because cofitness measures shared fitness phenotypes rather than direct transcriptional control. 1
Flagella and chemotaxis may be unnecessary in the shaken-liquid-culture conditions commonly used by the Fitness Browser, making shared laboratory dispensability a possible explanation for the enrichment. 1
The core-gene analysis refines this explanation by interpreting flagellar machinery as energetically expensive and potentially costly in laboratory conditions, yet conserved because motility can be essential for chemotaxis in natural environments; this remains an inference from laboratory fitness and conservation rather than direct measurement of natural selection. 2
A key unresolved test is a fitness-matched permutation using random non-AMR genes with the same mean-fitness distribution, including the proposed −0.05 to +0.05 range. 1
The report also proposes directly assessing mean fitness for flagellar knockouts and testing cofitness separately under antibiotic and standard-growth conditions. 1
Related pages
- AMR Co-Fitness Support Networks — source report on AMR cofitness support networks and flagellar enrichment.
- Core Gene Paradox — Why Are Core Genes More Burdensome? — source report on conservation-associated, condition-dependent fitness burden.
- condition-specific-fitness — frames shared dispensability as an alternative explanation for the enrichment.
- gene-essentiality — provides context for interpreting flagellar fitness phenotypes under laboratory conditions.
- chemotaxis — related motility and signaling function included in the report’s interpretation of enrichment.