Beyond 9+0: noncanonical axoneme structures characterize sensory cilia from protists to humans.

ABSTRACT: The intracellular amastigote stages of parasites such as Leishmania are often referred to as aflagellate. They do, however, possess a short axoneme of cryptic function. Here, our examination of the structure of this axoneme leads to a testable hypothesis of its role in the cell biology of pathogenicity. We show a striking similarity between the microtubule axoneme structure of the Leishmania mexicana parasite infecting a macrophage and vertebrate primary cilia. In both, the 9-fold microtubule doublet symmetry is broken by the incursion of one or more microtubule doublets into the axoneme core, giving rise to an architecture that we term here the 9v (variable) axoneme. Three-dimensional reconstructions revealed that no particular doublet initiated the symmetry break, and moreover it often i

SUBMITTER: Gluenz E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2923350 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature