Analysis of biological noise in the flagellar length control system.

Any proposed mechanism for organelle size control should be able to account not only for average size but also for the variation in size. We analyzed cell-to-cell variation and within-cell variation of length for the two flagella in , finding that cell-to-cell variation is dominated by cell size, whereas within-cell variation results from dynamic fluctuations. Fluctuation analysis suggests tubulin assembly is not directly coupled with intraflagellar transport (IFT) and that the observed length fluctuations reflect tubulin assembly and disassembly events involving large numbers of tubulin dimers.

A Pathogen-Responsive Gene Cluster for Highly Modified Fatty Acids in Tomato.

In response to biotic stress, plants produce suites of highly modified fatty acids that bear unusual chemical functionalities. Despite their chemical complexity and proposed roles in pathogen defense, little is known about the biosynthesis of decorated fatty acids in plants. Falcarindiol is a prototypical acetylenic lipid present in carrot, tomato, and celery that inhibits growth of fungi and human cancer cell lines.

Testing the role of intraflagellar transport in flagellar length control using length-altering mutants of .

Cilia and flagella are ideal model organelles in which to study the general question of organelle size control. Flagellar microtubules are steady-state structures whose size is set by the balance of assembly and disassembly. Assembly requires intraflagellar transport (IFT), and measurements of IFT have shown that the rate of entry of IFT particles into the flagellum is a decreasing function of length.

TTC26/DYF13 is an intraflagellar transport protein required for transport of motility-related proteins into flagella.

Cilia/flagella are assembled and maintained by the process of intraflagellar transport (IFT), a highly conserved mechanism involving more than 20 IFT proteins. However, the functions of individual IFT proteins are mostly unclear. To help address this issue, we focused on a putative IFT protein TTC26/DYF13.

Avalanche-like behavior in ciliary import.

Cilia and flagella are microtubule-based organelles that protrude from the cell body. Ciliary assembly requires intraflagellar transport (IFT), a motile system that delivers cargo from the cell body to the flagellar tip for assembly. The process controlling injections of IFT proteins into the flagellar compartment is, therefore, crucial to ciliogenesis.

The role of retrograde intraflagellar transport in flagellar assembly, maintenance, and function.

The maintenance of flagellar length is believed to require both anterograde and retrograde intraflagellar transport (IFT). However, it is difficult to uncouple the functions of retrograde transport from anterograde, as null mutants in dynein heavy chain 1b (DHC1b) have stumpy flagella, demonstrating solely that retrograde IFT is required for flagellar assembly. We isolated a Chlamydomonas reinhardtii mutant (dhc1b-3) with a temperature-sensitive defect in DHC1b, enabling inducible inhibition of retrograde IFT in full-length flagella.

Influence of centriole number on mitotic spindle length and symmetry.

The functional role of centrioles or basal bodies in mitotic spindle assembly and function is currently unclear. Although supernumerary centrioles have been associated with multipolar spindles in cancer cells, suggesting centriole number might dictate spindle polarity, bipolar spindles are able to assemble in the complete absence of centrioles, suggesting a level of centriole-independence in the spindle assembly pathway. In this report we perturb centriole number using mutations in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, and measure the response of the mitotic spindle to these perturbations in centriole number.

Flagellar length control in chlamydomonas--paradigm for organelle size regulation.

A fundamental unsolved question in cell biology is how the cell controls the size of its organelles. Cilia and flagella are an ideal test case to study the mechanism of organelle size control, because their size is easily measured and can be represented by a single number-length. Moreover, the involvement of cilia in many developmental and physiological processes suggests an understanding of their size control system is critical for understanding ciliary diseases, many of which (e.

Flagellar motility: all pull together.

Eukaryotic flagella produce a swimming force by coordinating thousands of dynein motor proteins. Recent work provides new clues into how this coordination is achieved.