INTRODUCTION
Bacteria can swim in a liquid environment or on a wet surface using flagella, which elongate outwards from the cell surface. The bacterial flagellum, which functions like a screw propeller of a ship, is a filamentous supramolecular assembly composed of more than 20 different proteins (
1,
2) (
Fig. 1A). The flagellum is rotated by a nanoscale rotary motor, which is comprised of the rotor and stator in the cytoplasmic membrane and the rod as a driving shaft connected to the rotor and extended into the periplasmic space. The motor is energized by the influx of ions, typically H
+ or Na
+, which drive flagellar rotation (
3).
The bacterial flagellum is an interesting research topic for energy transduction by ion flow. Motor rotation is produced by the rotor-stator interaction coupled with ion influx via ion channels in the stator unit (
4–8). The rotor is composed of the transmembrane MS-ring and the cytoplasmic C-ring, which is attached to the cytoplasmic region of the MS-ring (
9,
10). The stator is composed of two kinds of transmembrane proteins, the A subunit and B subunit, which form complexes of 4 and 2 molecules, respectively. They form complexes of 4 PomAs and 2 PomBs in
Vibrio and 4 MotAs and 2 MotBs in
Escherichia coli (
11,
12). A dozen stator complexes surround the rotor (
13,
14). The torque for rotation is produced by the interaction between FliG in the C-ring and the A subunit in the stator. Since FliG binds to the cytoplasmic tail of FliF, which is an MS-ring component, the MS-ring assembly is responsible for the C-ring assembly (
15). Therefore, the MS-ring acts as a base structure of the motor structure for flagellar rotation. The flagellum possesses a flagellar protein-specific translocator called the export apparatus, which is classified as a type III secretion system (T3SS) (
16). It translocates the flagellar axial structure proteins and their cap proteins across the cell membrane into the extracellular space. Since the export apparatus is located inside the MS-ring, MS-ring formation is essential in the initiation of flagellar construction (
17,
18). FliF possesses two transmembrane (TM) segments in the N-terminal and C-terminal regions and a large periplasmic domain containing ca. 400 residues between the TM segments (see Fig. S1 in the supplemental material) (
19). However, the mechanism behind the insertion of FliF molecules into the cytoplasmic membrane and their assembly into a ring-shaped structure is unclear.
The number and positions of flagella are various in different bacterial species. For example,
Salmonella and
E. coli cells possess peritrichous flagella, whereas
Vibrio and
Pseudomonas cells possess a single flagellum at one of the cell poles (monotrichous flagellum). What is the difference between these species? Previous studies have shown that the flagellar gene expression in
Salmonella affects the number of flagella. The overexpression of the master regulators FlhD/FlhC, which initiate transcription of the flagellar gene regulons, or the defect of negative regulators against FlhD/FlhC, FliT, or ClpX/ClpP allowed an increase of the flagellar number (
20,
21). In
Vibrio, FlaK (or FlrA) functions as the master regulator, instead of FlhD/FlhC (
22,
23). Moreover, additional regulators, namely, FlhF and FlhG, are involved in controlling the number and position of the single flagellum in
Vibrio and
Pseudomonas (
24–31). They ensure that only one flagellum is formed at one of the cell poles (
Fig. 1B). Genes encoding these proteins do not exist in
E. coli and
Salmonella. FlhF and FlhG serve as positive and negative factors, respectively, in the regulation of flagellar number. In
Vibrio spp., overexpression of FlhF or a defect of FlhG induces an increase in the number of flagella, whereas overexpression of FlhG or a defect of FlhF results in the loss of flagellar formation (
24,
25). A double defect of FlhF and FlhG induces the development of a nonflagellate phenotype. However, in a few cases, an
flhF-flhG null mutant cell produces peritrichous flagella, illustrating the importance of FlhF in the determination of flagellar location, as well as in the flagellar formation (
24,
25,
31). Since green fluorescent protein (GFP)-fused FlhF is intrinsically localized at the cell pole, FlhF seems to determine the site at which flagellar formation is initiated (in this case, at the cell pole) (
25). FlhG reduces the polar localization of FlhF and suppresses the function of FlhF at the cell pole, controlling the flagellar number and location to construct a single flagellum at one of the poles (
32,
33) (
Fig. 1B). FlhF and FlhG are a GTPase and an ATPase, respectively, and the GTPase activity of FlhF is enhanced by interaction with FlhG (
33–39). Flagellar formation was not affected by a mutation in the catalytic residue of FlhF, which abolishes the GTPase activity, whereas a mutation in the GTP-binding residues prevented flagellar formation in
Vibrio spp. (
34,
35). These results suggest that nucleotide binding to FlhF is necessary for flagellar formation and that GTP hydrolysis is involved in removing FlhF from the cell pole. FlhG also localizes at the cell pole. This localization is important for FlhG function as a suppressor of flagellar biogenesis (
25,
33). The precise roles of FlhF and FlhG are, however, still obscure. Recently, it has been reported that a gene,
hubP, is involved in the regulation of the flagellar number in
Vibrio (
40,
41). HubP seems to assist the function of FlhG in suppressing FlhF activity at the cell pole (
Fig. 1B).
Since FlhF and FlhG regulate the number and location of flagella in Vibrio and the MS-ring formation serves as the start point for flagellar formation, it is suggested that these proteins should contribute to FliF localization at the cell pole and to the subsequent formation of the MS-ring. To elucidate the initiation mechanism of flagellar formation and the spatial/temporal control mechanism of MS-ring assembly in marine Vibrio species, we investigated the factors required for MS-ring formation by expressing Vibrio FliF in E. coli cells. Here, we provide an insight into the assembly mechanism of the MS-ring in Vibrio species, which regulates the number and location of the flagella.
DISCUSSION
FliF has two putative transmembrane segments, TM1 and TM2, in the N-terminal and C-terminal regions, respectively, and a large periplasmic domain (see Fig. S1 in the supplemental material). The FliF proteins assemble into the MS-ring complex in the cytoplasmic membrane. Overexpression of
Salmonella FliF allowed the spontaneous formation of the MS-ring complex (
9,
43,
48). On the other hand, such an effect was not observed when
Vibrio FliF was overexpressed in
E. coli cells. Therefore, it is unclear if
Vibrio FliF forms the MS-ring spontaneously or if other flagellar components are required for its formation (
15). In this study, we improved the MS-ring purification protocol and found a few MS-rings by EM observation in the MS-ring fraction isolated from cells overproducing FliF alone, suggesting that the assembling efficiency of FliF alone is low. We presume the following two reasons for the difficulty in MS-ring formation of
Vibrio FliF alone: (i) FliF does not translocate into the cytoplasmic membrane without the aid of helper proteins (
Fig. 6A) and (ii) FliF is not folded and/or assembled into MS-rings without the help of other flagellar proteins (
Fig. 6B). On the other hand, coexpression of FliF with FlhF and/or FliG enhanced the formation of MS-rings composed of
Vibrio FliF. Therefore, FlhF and FliG somehow play a role in the assembly of FliF into the MS-ring. We propose that MS-ring formation is facilitated by FlhF and FliG in
Vibrio cells, and the mechanism is described below.
FlhF recruited
Vibrio FliF to the cell pole. We propose that FlhF increases the local concentration of FliF at the cell pole, which facilitates MS-ring formation. We speculate that
Vibrio FliF spontaneously assembles into the MS-ring if its local concentration on the membrane is very high. As another possibility, FlhF may contribute to membrane insertion of a nascent chain of FliF. FlhF is homologous to the signal recognition particle (SRP), Ffh, and the SRP receptor, FtsY (
37,
49,
50). The SRP binds to the signal sequence of a nascent polypeptide translated by the ribosome and mediates the nascent polypeptide to dock with the Sec translocon to translocate it to the periplasmic space or the outer membrane (
51). Considering that FlhF is a homologue of Ffh and FtsY, the TM1 region of FliF may be targeted by FlhF and inserted into the membrane surrounding the cell pole. A nascent polypeptide binds to Ffh and is transferred to the Sec translocon through recognition by Ffh-FtsY heterodimer formation. Since FlhF forms a dimer in the presence of GTP (
35,
37), FlhF binding to the nascent FliF polypeptide may target other free FlhF localized at the cell pole. Consequently, FliF is released into the membrane surrounding the cell pole through the FlhF homodimer (
Fig. 6A). However, we have not been able to assess this possibility yet.
FliG interacts with the C-terminal region of FliF and forms a part of the C-ring. Since the
fliG null mutant of
Salmonella did not allow yellow fluorescent protein (YFP)-FliF to form fluorescent puncta in the cytoplasmic membrane, as monitored by fluorescent spots, FliG was thought to play an important role in the formation of MS-rings in
Salmonella cells (
46). When
Vibrio FliF was coexpressed with FliG, MS-rings were formed with high efficiency, suggesting that FliG contributes to the assembly of FliF into the MS-ring and that the interaction between FliF and FliG helps MS-ring and C-ring assembly (
Fig. 6B). Thus, the defect in the interaction induces a defective phenotype for flagellar formation (
15,
47,
52–54). The periplasmic ring structure of the MS-ring is structurally homologous to the injectisome IM-ring of enteropathogenic bacteria and to a sporulation channel in
Bacillus subtilis. The IM-ring and sporulation channel display a closely packed oligomerization ring through a canonical ring-building motif (RBM) fold (
55). The TM segments and cytoplasmic region seems to be a distorted arrangement compared with that of the extended and well-packed periplasmic ring because the TM segments of the MS-ring or the injectisome IM-ring are disordered (
56,
57). We speculate that FliG stabilizes the TM segments of FliF by binding to the C-terminal α-helix of FliF, thereby allowing FliF and FliG to coassemble into the MS-ring and C-ring, respectively.
We showed that overexpression of FliF with FlhF and FliG in E. coli cells led to the formation of MS-rings. Nevertheless, it is still obscure how FliF, under chromosomal expression levels, forms MS-rings in Vibrio cells. If Vibrio FliF from the genome is expressed at a very low level and MS-ring formation is linked to local concentration of the FliF protein, FlhF gathers FliF around the cell pole and MS-ring formation may be initiated by interaction with FliG and/or FlhF. We inferred that not only the gene expression or the amount of protein but also the efficiency of MS-ring formation or the assembly of FliF are necessary to form a single flagellum. The function of FliG and FlhF for MS-ring formation will contribute to strictly determining the number of flagella for a single flagellum and the position of flagellar formation in a Vibrio cell.
It has been shown by bacterial two-hybrid interaction assay that
Pseudomonas FlhF interacts with FliG but does not interact with FliF (
58). Thus, it has been proposed that the interaction between FlhF and FliG stops the motor rotation by disengaging or jamming the interaction between stator A subunit and rotor FliG when a
Pseudomonas cell is attached to a surface in the environment. We had the result that FliG and FlhF did not synergistically work to assist MS-ring formation. This may suggest that the interaction between FlhF and FliG does not assist the MS-ring assembly and that FlhF may have plural functions to regulate motor rotation to determine flagellar number and location. We would like to detect the interaction between FlhF and FliG, as well as the interaction between FlhF and FliF.
Previous studies have revealed that FlhG affects FlhF activity (
39). FlhG disturbs FlhF localization at the cell pole, and overexpression of FlhG, or FlhF knockout, prevents flagellar formation (
24–30,
59). However, in this study, FlhG coexpressed with FliF and FlhF does not affect MS-ring formation, suggesting that FlhG is not directly involved in MS-ring formation facilitated by FlhF. Rather than being involved in MS-ring formation, FlhG seems to regulate the polar localization of FlhF to initiate flagellar formation at the appropriate position and time. Moreover, FlhG may affect the function of FlhF as a transcriptional activator because FlhF activates the transcription of class III genes in
V. cholerae (
26). Additionally, it has been shown that FlhG affects FleQ, which is the master regulator of the flagellar gene clusters in
Pseudomonas and is an orthologue of FlaK, the
Vibrio master regulator, and it thereby inhibits flagellar gene expression (
60,
61). Bange and colleagues showed that FlhG mediates the interaction between FliG and FliM/FliY in an ATP- and lipid-dependent manner (
62). FlhG, FliM, FliY, and FliG form a quaternary complex and contribute to C-ring assembly during flagellar biogenesis. As described above, FlhG interacts with many other proteins during flagellum biogenesis, and it achieves fine-tuned control over the number and location of the flagella. Thus, we propose that the FlhG protein is a global regulator of flagellum biogenesis that is involved in flagellar gene expression and the flagellar assembly process (
Fig. 6).
The ability to form flagella with appropriate temporal and spatial control is important to survive in different environments. However, the factors involved in initiating flagellar formation in marine Vibrio species have not been clear. We think that FlhF recruits FliF to the cell pole to increase the local concentration of FliF and that FlhF and FliG facilitate MS-ring formation. We want to know how marine Vibrio species regulate the number and location of the MS-rings with appropriate temporal and spatial control by way of coordinated action between FliG, FlhF, FlhG, HubP, and so on.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Bacterial strains and plasmids.
The bacterial strains and plasmids used in this study are listed in Table S1 in the supplemental material. Vibrio cells were cultured in VC broth (0.5% [wt/vol] HiPolypeptone, 0.5% [wt/vol] yeast extract, 3% [wt/vol] NaCl, 0.4% [wt/vol] K2HPO4, and 0.2% [wt/vol] glucose) and VPG broth (1% [wt/vol] HiPolypeptone, 3% [wt/vol] NaCl, 0.4% [wt/vol] K2HPO4, and 0.5% [wt/vol] glycerol), and E. coli was cultured in LB broth (1% [wt/vol] Bacto tryptone, 0.5% [wt/vol] yeast extract, 0.5% [wt/vol] NaCl) or SB broth (1.2% [wt/vol)] Bacto tryptone, 2.4% [wt/vol] yeast extract, 1.25% [wt/vol] K2HPO4, 0.38% [wt/vol] KH2PO4, and 0.5% [vol/vol] glycerol). Chloramphenicol was added to final concentrations of 2.5 μg/ml for Vibrio and 25 μg/ml for E. coli. Ampicillin was added to a final concentration of 50 μg/ml for E. coli. Kanamycin was added to a final concentration of 100 μg/ml for Vibrio.
Purification of Vibrio FliF protein.
Vibrio FliF was overproduced in the E. coli BL21(DE3) strain from the cold shock expression plasmid pRO101. An overnight culture was inoculated in 1.5 liters of SB broth at 1/100 dilution and incubated at 37°C until an optical density at 600 nm (OD600) of 0.4 to 0.5. The culture was cooled on ice for 30 min to induce transcription from the cold shock promoter. Following cold shock treatment, isopropyl-β-d-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG) was added to a final concentration of 0.5 mM and incubated at 16°C overnight. The cells were then harvested and suspended in 50 ml of TN solution (20 mM Tris-HCl [pH 8.0] and 150 mM NaCl) with 100 μg/ml lysozyme. Cell disruption was carried out by sonication. Following cell debris removal, the cytoplasmic membrane was precipitated by ultracentrifugation at 100,000 × g for 1 h. The membrane fraction was resuspended in 50 ml TN solution, and n-decyl-β-d-maltoside (DM) was added to a final concentration of 1% (wt/vol). The membrane fraction was stirred on ice for 1 h to solubilize the cytoplasmic membrane. Following the removal of inclusion bodies, the solubilized FliF was applied onto a HisTrap column (GE Healthcare). The column was washed using TN solution with 5 mM imidazole and 0.1% (wt/vol) DM, and the bound FliF proteins were eluted by a linear gradient of up to 500 mM imidazole. Eluted proteins were subjected to the Superdex 200 Increase column (GE Healthcare) in TN solution with 0.1% (wt/vol) DM.
Purification of Vibrio MS-ring from E. coli cells.
Purification of MS-rings formed by
Vibrio FliF was carried out as described previously with several modifications (
43). An overnight culture was inoculated in 2 liters of LB broth at 1/100 dilution and incubated at 37°C until an OD
600 of 0.5. The culture was cooled in ice for 30 min to induce transcription from the cold shock promoter. Following cold shock treatment, IPTG (for the pCold1 and pMMB206 vectors) and arabinose (for the pBAD33 vector) were added to final concentrations of 0.5 mM and 0.02% (wt/vol), respectively, and incubated at 16°C for 16 to 24 h. The cells were then harvested, suspended in 40 ml of TEN solution (50 mM Tris-HCl [pH 8.0], 5 mM EDTA-NaOH [pH 8.0], and 50 mM NaCl) and passed through a French press cell disrupter (Otake, Inc.) under 10,000 lb/in
2 pressure to disrupt the cells. Following cell debris removal, the cytoplasmic membrane was precipitated by ultracentrifugation at 90,000 ×
g for 1 h. The membrane fraction was suspended in 40 ml of an alkaline solution (50 mM CAPS-NaOH [pH 11.0], 5 mM EDTA-NaOH [pH 11.0], 50 mM NaCl, and 1% [wt/vol] Triton X-100) and left to stand at 4°C for 1 h to solubilize the cytoplasmic membrane. Following the removal of inclusion bodies, the crude MS-ring fraction was precipitated by ultracentrifugation at 90,000 ×
g for 1 h. The crude MS-ring fraction was resuspended in 3 ml S solution (25 mM Tris-HCl [pH 8.0], 1 mM EDTA-NaOH [pH 8.0], 50 mM NaCl, and 0.1% [wt/vol] Triton X-100) and separated using sucrose density gradient centrifugation (6 ml each 40% [wt/wt]/30% [wt/wt]/25% [wt/wt]/20% [wt/wt]/20% [wt/wt] sucrose stepwise gradient solution dissolved in C solution [10 mM Tris-HCl {pH 8.0}, 5 mM EDTA-NaOH {pH 8.0}, and 1% {wt/vol} Triton X-100]) at 49,100 ×
g (P28S rotor; Hitachi Koki) for 13 h. The sucrose solution was fractionated into 2-ml aliquots. Fractions 5, 6, and 7, which contained the MS-ring, were diluted 20 times in His-A solution (10 mM Tris-HCl [pH 8.0], 100 mM NaCl, and 0.1% [wt/vol] Triton X-100) and loaded onto a Ni-nitrilotriacetic acid (Ni-NTA)–agarose column (Qiagen). The MS-ring bound to the column was washed using His-B solution (10 mM Tris-HCl [pH 8.0], 100 mM NaCl, 0.1% [wt/vol] Triton X-100, and 10 mM imidazole). MS-rings were eluted in His-C solution (10 mM Tris-HCl [pH 8.0], 100 mM NaCl, 0.1% [wt/vol] Triton X-100, and 500 mM imidazole) and precipitated by ultracentrifugation at 90,000 ×
g for 1 h. The precipitated MS-ring was resuspended in 30 μl of S solution and observed by EM.
MS-ring purification from cells where FlhG was coexpressed with FliF and FlhF was carried out as described above with further slight modifications. The cells were harvested, suspended in 45 ml of TN solution (50 mM Tris-HCl [pH 8.0] and 50 mM NaCl) and passed through a French press cell disrupter (Otake, Inc.) under 10,000 lb/in2 pressure to disrupt the cells. Following cell debris removal, the cytoplasmic membrane was precipitated by ultracentrifugation at 90,000 × g for 1 h. The membrane fraction was resuspended in 45 ml TN solution and solubilized using n-dodecyl-β-d-maltoside (DDM) at a final concentration of 1% (wt/vol). Following the removal of undissolved particles, the crude MS-ring fraction was precipitated by ultracentrifugation at 90,000 × g for 1 h. The crude MS-ring fraction was resuspended in 10 ml TND solution (50 mM Tris-HCl [pH 8.0], 50 mM NaCl, and 0.05% [wt/vol] DDM]. The suspension was loaded onto a Ni-NTA–agarose column (Qiagen). The MS-ring bound to the column was washed using His-D solution (50 mM Tris-HCl [pH 8.0], 50 mM NaCl, 0.05% [wt/vol] DDM, and 50 mM imidazole). MS-rings were eluted in His-E solution (50 mM Tris-HCl [pH 8.0], 50 mM NaCl, 0.05% [wt/vol] DDM, and 300 mM imidazole) and precipitated by ultracentrifugation at 90,000 × g for 1 h. The precipitated MS-rings were resuspended in 50 μl of the remaining supernatant and observed by EM.
Fluorescence microscopy.
An overnight culture of
Vibrio cells was diluted (1:100 dilution) in VPG broth containing antibiotics and 0.02% (wt/vol) arabinose to induce the expression of GFP-FliF. The cells were incubated further at 30°C for 4 h. To express FlhF (
Fig. 3B), IPTG was added to the culture at a final concentration of 0.1 mM. GFP-FliF was expressed in plasmids pTY701 (for
Fig. 3A) or pYI102 (for
Fig. 3B). FlhF was expressed in plasmid pTSK122 (
Fig. 3B). The cells were collected and suspended in V buffer (50 mM Tris-HCl [pH 7.5], 300 mM NaCl, and 5 mM MgCl
2). The cells were added to a slide coated with poly-
l-lysine, washed using V buffer, and observed under a BX-50 microscope (Olympus). Fluorescent images were captured using a digital camera (ORCA-Flash4.0; Hamamatsu Photonics), and the images were processed using the imaging software HSR (Hamamatsu Photonics).
Negative staining electron microscopy for MS-rings.
MS-ring solutions were applied to carbon-coated copper grids and negatively stained with 3% (wt/vol) uranyl acetate. EM images were observed with a JEM-1010 or JEM-2010 transmission electron microscope (JEOL, Japan) operating at 100 kV using a Bioscan model 792 charge-coupled device (CCD camera) or at 200 kV using an Orius SC200D model 833 CCD camera (Gatan, USA).
Purification of the hook-basal body from Vibrio cells for electron microscope images.
Purification of the hook-basal body from
Vibrio cells was carried out as described previously, with several modifications (
17). An overnight culture was inoculated in 1 liter of VC broth at 1/100 dilution and incubated at 30°C until an OD
600 of 0.7. The cells were collected by centrifugation at 4,600 ×
g for 10 min. The pellet was resuspended in 46 ml of an ice-cold buffer containing 0.5 M sucrose and 50 mM Tris-HCl (pH 8.0). EDTA and lysozyme were added to final concentrations of 10 mM and 0.1 mg/ml, respectively. Subsequently, the solution was stirred for 30 min, and spheroplasts were lysed using Triton X-100 and MgSO
4 at final concentrations of 1% (wt/vol) and 10 mM, respectively. The solution was stirred again on ice for 2 h. Subsequently, EDTA-NaOH (pH 11.0) was added to a final concentration of 10 mM, and the unlysed cells and cell debris were removed by centrifugation at 15,000 ×
g for 20 min. The pH of the supernatant was adjusted to 10.5 by adding 5 M NaOH. Following cell debris removal, the lysate was spun down by centrifugation at 60,000 ×
g for 60 min. The pellet was resuspended in buffer C (10 mM Tris-HCl [pH 8.0], 5 mM EDTA-NaOH [pH 8.0], and 1% [wt/vol] Triton X-100). HBB was collected from a 20 to 50% (wt/wt) fraction of sucrose density gradient centrifugation, in buffer C, at 60,000 ×
g for 14 h. Following the dilution of the sucrose solution-containing HBB in buffer C, HBB was collected by centrifugation at 60,000 ×
g for 60 min, and the pellet was resuspended in buffer C. Sample solutions were applied to carbon-coated copper grids and negatively stained with 2% (wt/vol) uranyl acetate. EM images were obtained with a JEM-1011 transmission electron microscope (JEOL, Japan) operating at 100 kV using a TemCam-F415 CCD camera (TVIPS, Germany).
3D reconstruction of electron microscope images.
The 1,881-particle images were extracted from the 43 micrographs. Once 2D classification was performed, the best particles were selected from them. The initial model was built from the selected particles. The final 3D structure was reconstructed using 1,356 particles with 34-fold rotational symmetry. All image processing was carried out with RELION3.0.
High speed-atomic force microscope observation and image analysis.
HS-AFM imaging was carried out using a laboratory-built high-speed atomic force microscope (
63). The imaging mode in AFM was set as tapping mode, in which a small cantilever with a spring constant of ∼0.2 N/m and a resonant frequency of ∼800 kHz (BLAC7; Olympus) oscillated close to the resonant frequency. The change in the oscillation amplitude was detected by an optimum optical lever deflection method. For feedback control in HS-AFM imaging, the cantilever’s free oscillation amplitude of approximately 2 nm was reduced to 1.5 nm. For HS-AFM imaging, MS-rings were deposited on a mica surface treated with 3-aminopropyl-triethoxysilane (AP-mica). In brief, following cleavage of the mica substrate, 0.1% 3-aminopropyl-triethoxysilane solution was diluted with pure water, deposited on the cleaved mica surface, and incubated for 3 min. The mica surface was then thoroughly washed with pure water, and a solution of MS-rings were deposited. About 10 min postincubation, residual MS-rings were washed off using buffer C. The HS-AFM observation was carried out in buffer C. To observe the detailed structure of the MS-ring (as shown in
Fig. 5A), a raw AFM image was filtered by a band-pass filter with high and low cutoff frequencies of 1/12.0 nm
−1 and 1/1.2 nm
−1, respectively.