UMMS Affiliation
Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences; Department of Cell Biology; Program in Molecular Medicine
Date
2-22-2007
Document Type
Article
Medical Subject Headings
Amino Acid Sequence; Animals; Cell Movement; Chlamydomonas reinhardtii; Cloning, Molecular; Conserved Sequence; Dynein ATPase; Flagella; Intracellular Signaling Peptides and; Proteins; Mice; Molecular Sequence Data; Mutation; Protein Transport; Protozoan Proteins; Sequence Alignment
Disciplines
Life Sciences | Medicine and Health Sciences
Abstract
Intraflagellar transport (IFT), which is the bidirectional movement of particles within flagella, is required for flagellar assembly. IFT particles are composed of approximately 16 proteins, which are organized into complexes A and B. We have cloned Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and mouse IFT46, and show that IFT46 is a highly conserved complex B protein in both organisms. A C. reinhardtii insertional mutant null for IFT46 has short, paralyzed flagella lacking dynein arms and with central pair defects. The mutant has greatly reduced levels of most complex B proteins, indicating that IFT46 is necessary for complex B stability. A partial suppressor mutation restores flagellar length to the ift46 mutant. IFT46 is still absent, but levels of the other IFT particle proteins are largely restored, indicating that complex B is stabilized in the suppressed strain. Axonemal ultrastructure is restored, except that the outer arms are still missing, although outer arm subunits are present in the cytoplasm. Thus, IFT46 is specifically required for transporting outer arms into the flagellum.
Rights and Permissions
Citation: J Cell Biol. 2007 Feb 26;176(5):653-65. Epub 2007 Feb 20. Link to article on publisher's website