Structural diversity of axonemes across mammalian motile cilia.

ABSTRACT: Reproduction, development and homeostasis depend on motile cilia, whose rhythmic beating is powered by a microtubule-based molecular machine called the axoneme. Although an atomic model of the axoneme is available for the alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii¹, structures of mammalian axonemes are incomplete^1-5. Furthermore, we do not fully understand how molecular structures of axonemes vary across motile-ciliated cell types in the body. Here we use cryoelectron microscopy, cryoelectron tomography and proteomics to resolve the 96-nm modular repeat of axonemal doublet microtubules (DMTs) from both sperm flagella and epithelial cilia of the oviduct, brain ventricles and respiratory tract. We find that sperm DMTs are the most specialized, with epithelial cilia having only mino

SUBMITTER: Leung MR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11779644 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature