Involved in the transmission of sensory signals from the chemoreceptors to the flagellar motors. CheV and CheW are involved in the coupling of the methyl-accepting chemoreceptors to the central two-component kinase CheA; they are both necessary for efficient chemotaxis. Chemotaxis is substantially impaired, with a 30-fold reduction in the efficiency of chemotaxis with aspartate and 11-fold reduction with 2-deoxyglucose. Inactivation of cheW appears to have a subtle effect on chemotactic behavior in the absence of chemoeffectors: the bacteria display a smooth swimming bias, with some tumbling. A double mutant lacking both CheV and CheW has a strong tumble bias, does not respond to addition of attractant, shows essentially no accumulation in capillary assays, and has greatly reduced methyl turnover on the methyl-accepting chemotaxis proteins (MCPs).