Complete systems have been identified in several eubacteria closely related to E. coli , but in the archaebacterial organisms as well as in the more distantly related eubacteria many key components of the classical chemotaxis and motility systems went unidentified. First, I researched the morphological characteristics of the first fifteen prokaryotic organisms whose genomes have been completely sequenced. As you can see, five of the fifteen are nonmotile and do not have flagella. Correspondingly no proteins for flagella structure or synthesis could be identified by sequence homology. Although we would not expect to find flagella-related proteins in Synechocystis sp.
Blanks mean no homolog was found.
A number indicates more than one homolog was found. Receptor indicates the presence of members of the methyl-accepting chemotaxis protein family. I used the flagellin and receptor categories as a control. Every organism known to have flagella had an annotated flagella structural protein. As you can see, of my experimental set of 10 proteins, four organisms have a complete set.