Self-limited length of in vitro reconstituted flagella of Salmonella

A flow birefringent study suggests that the mean length of bacterial flagella of Salmonella (SJ-25) reconstituted in vitro does not exceed some critical length, say about 6 μm. Since monomers remaining in solution can polymerize upon addition of new seeds, the self-limiting mechanism of polymerization seems to be intrinsic.