The homodimeric kinesin, Kif17, is essential for vertebrate photoreceptor sensory outer segment development.

ABSTRACT: Sensory cilia and intraflagellar transport (IFT), a pathway essential for ciliogenesis, play important roles in embryonic development and cell differentiation. In vertebrate photoreceptors IFT is required for the early development of ciliated sensory outer segments (OS), an elaborate organelle that sequesters the many proteins comprising the phototransduction machinery. As in other cilia and flagella, heterotrimeric members of the kinesin 2 family have been implicated as the anterograde IFT motor in OS. However, in Caenorhabditis elegans, OSM-3, a homodimeric kinesin 2 motor, plays an essential role in some, but not all sensory cilia. Kif17, a vertebrate OSM-3 homologue, is known for its role in dendritic trafficking in neurons, but a function in ciliogenesis has not been determined. We sh

SUBMITTER: Insinna C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2362383 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature