ABSTRACT
The most common means of locomotion in prokaryotes is via the rotation of flagella. These act as propellers, allowing the cell to swim through liquid media. A single cell may have many flagella spread all over the surface of the cell (peritrichous flagella), the flagella may be polar, found at one (monotrichous if single) or both ends (amphitrichous if only two in total). Lipotrichous flagella grow in tufts from one position on the cell surface. Each flagellum is not straight but is helix shaped, with the length, wavelength, and amplitude of the helix varying from species to species. Although the presence or absence, 62the properties, and the position of the flagella can be used as taxonomic characters, all bacterial flagella are composed of the same protein: flagellin. However, much like cell wall composition, the situation in Archaea is very different, in that there are many different proteins in this kingdom that perform analogous functions.
