Mô hình động cơ roi (Flagellar motor model)

The flagellar motor turns long corkscrew-shaped flagella at a speed of about 18,000 rpm allowing bacteria such as Salmonella to move. The flagellum needs to be anchored in the inner membrane and pass through the peptidoglycan and the outer membrane.  As Salmonella can not steer, the bacteria need to invert the rotation  of the flagellum in order to change direction. 

The complete flagellar motor is provided in pieces that can be printed individually and assembled in front of the students. The C-ring actually moving the flagellum is provided in both the clockwise and counterclockwise conformations. Stator and the CheY proteins are also provided individually. Components are printed at various scales, please see the pictures for details. 

The source of inspiration for this model is the PDB101 Molecule of the Month entry https://pdb101.rcsb.org/motm/300 . Many thanks go to David Goodsell not only for the great article but also for providing key pdb files used in generating the 3D printed models.