TraitMech

TraitMech › MORPHOLOGY

motility

METPO:1000701 · CLASS · REVIEWED

A phenotype in which an organism has the capability to move independently through its environment, typically by means of flagella, pili, gliding mechanisms, or other locomotory structures.

Bacterial motility machinery

Evidence-backed causal sketch linking motility to flagella, type IV pili, gliding systems, chemotaxis, and energy transduction.

Bacterial motility machinery Interactive directed graph showing evidence-backed causal relationships for motility.

Edge evidence

  • flagellar motor enables motility RO:0002327

    Rotary flagellar motors enable bacterial swimming and related motility modes.

    • DOI:10.1038/s41579-021-00626-4 allow bacteria to move around Review summarizes flagellar machinery as a major bacterial motility mechanism.
  • type IV pilus enables motility RO:0002327

    Type IV pili enable twitching motility through extension, adhesion, and retraction.

    • DOI:10.1038/s41579-019-0195-4 Cycles of pilus extension, binding and retraction Supports type IV pili as motility appendages.
  • gliding motility machinery enables motility RO:0002327

    Gliding machinery allows surface movement without external flagella.

    • DOI:10.1146/annurev.micro.55.1.49 move actively over surfaces Supports gliding as an active bacterial movement mechanism.
  • ion motive force enables flagellar motor RO:0002327

    Ion motive force powers rotation of many bacterial flagellar motors.

    • DOI:10.3389/fmicb.2021.659464 relationship between the IMF and the functioning Supports ion motive force powering the bacterial flagellar motor.
  • chemotaxis signaling regulates motility RO:0002211

    Chemotaxis signaling regulates the direction and pattern of bacterial movement.

    • DOI:10.3390/biom9070279 chemotactic signaling pathways regulate the direction Supports chemotaxis control of flagella-driven motility.
  • type IV pilus drives twitching motility

    Type IV pili power twitching, a form of bacterial surface translocation.

    • DOI:10.1128/msphere.00390-24 Twitching motility is a form of bacterial surface translocation powered by the type IV pilus (T4P).
  • PilB extension ATPase drives extension of type IV pilus

    PilB ATPase drives extension of the type IV pilus.

    • DOI:10.1128/jb.00359-24 PilB is the homohexameric extension ATPase of the type IV pilus.
  • PilT retraction ATPase drives retraction of type IV pilus

    PilT ATPase drives retraction of the type IV pilus.

    • DOI:10.1128/jb.00359-24 Retraction is carried out by the antagonistic ATPase PilT.
  • type IV pilus retraction generates twitching motility biolink:produces

    Type IV pilus retraction generates the pulling forces underlying twitching motility.

    • DOI:10.1128/jb.00442-23 T4P retraction generates the pulling forces underlying twitching motility.
  • cyclic di-GMP inhibits motility RO:0002212

    Cyclic di-GMP inhibits motility; lowering c-di-GMP relieves this inhibition.

    • DOI:10.1038/s42003-024-07392-y Lower c-di-GMP relieves its inhibition on motility (generic c-di-GMP -> motility edge).
  • archaellum enables motility RO:0002327

    The archaellum enables swimming motility in archaea, analogous to the bacterial flagellum.

    • DOI:10.1038/s41467-024-50277-1 The archaellum enables cell motility in archaea.

Provenance

Source
METPO (2025-11-25)
Author
Jed Dongjin Kim-Ozaeta
Definition source
DOI:10.1038/s41579-021-00626-4

Parent traits (1)

Children (2)

Synonyms (1)

  • Morphology.cell morphology.motility RELATED_SYNONYM · metpo.owl

kg-microbe context

Matched 1 kg-microbe node via direct_metpo.

  • METPO:1000701 [-1.722, -3.036, -3.705, +0.093, …]

512-dim DeepWalkSkipGramEnsmallen embedding from kg-microbe (2026-04-25).

Nearest neighbors in embedding space

Top-8 cosine-similar METPO traits from the 2026-04-25 deepwalk (512-D).

Curation history

  1. · SEEDED_FROM_METPO · seed_from_metpo

    imported from data/raw/metpo.owl (CLASS)

  2. · CURATED_WITH_LITERATURE · codex

    Reviewed motility trait and added DOI-backed causal graph for flagellar, pili-mediated, gliding, chemotaxis, and ion-motive-force mechanisms.

  3. · GROUND_CAUSAL_PREDICATES · claude

    Grounded 4 causal-edge predicate_id field(s) via mappings/predicate_grounding.tsv (RO:0002327×3, RO:0002211×1).

  4. · GROUND_CAUSAL_NODES · claude

    Grounded 1 causal-node grounding field(s) via mappings/node_grounding.tsv (UniProtKB:R6TBR9×1).

  5. · RENAME_PREDICATE_LABELS · claude

    Renamed 1 causal-edge predicate label(s) to align with existing groundings: powers → enables ×1.

  6. · GROUND_CAUSAL_PREDICATES · claude

    Grounded 1 causal-edge predicate_id field(s) via mappings/predicate_grounding.tsv (RO:0002327×1).

  7. · GROUND_CAUSAL_NODES · claude

    Grounded 1 causal-node grounding field(s) via mappings/node_grounding.tsv (GO:0006935×1).

  8. · REMOVE_REDUNDANT_SYNONYM · claude

    Removed 1 synonym(s) whose text duplicated the label (seeder redundancy; no information lost).

  9. · ENRICH_CAUSAL_GRAPH · claude

    Added 6 evidence-backed generic edges (6 new nodes) from the deep-research report.

  10. · GROUND_CAUSAL_PREDICATES · claude

    Grounded 3 causal-edge predicate_id field(s) via mappings/predicate_grounding.tsv (biolink:produces×1, RO:0002212×1, RO:0002327×1).

  11. · GROUND_CAUSAL_NODES · claude

    Grounded 1 causal-node grounding field(s) via mappings/node_grounding.tsv (CHEBI:49537×1).