Abstract
Tetrahymena and Paramecium are highly differentiated unicellular organisms with elaborated cortical patterns showing a regular arrangement of hundreds to thousands of basal bodies in longitudinal rows that extend from the anterior to the posterior region of the cell. Thus both ciliates exhibit a permanent antero–posterior axis and left–right asymmetry. This cell polarity is reflected in the direction of the structures nucleated around each basal body such as the ciliary rootlets. Studies in these ciliates showed that basal bodies assemble two types of cilia, the cortical cilia and the cilia of the oral apparatus, a complex structure specialized in food capture. These two cilia types display structural differences at their tip domain. Basal bodies possessing distinct compositions creating specialized landmarks are also present. Cilia might be expected to express and transmit polarities throughout signaling pathways given their recognized role in signal transduction. This review will focus on how local polarities in basal bodies/cilia are regulated and transmitted through cell division in order to maintain the global polarity and shape of these cells and locally constrain the interpretation of signals by different cilia. We will also discuss ciliates as excellent biological models to study development and morphogenetic mechanisms and their relationship with cilia diversity and function in metazoans.
Highlights
THE COMPLEX ARCHITECTURE OF A SINGLE CELL ORGANISMCiliates are a large and diverse group of unicellular eukaryotes that present a variety of shapes and sizes
Ciliates offer unforeseen opportunities to study the role of basal bodies (BB) as sensory platforms, distinct cilia in a single cell, and complex microtubular structures and their role “as relays in transmission of polarities and morphogenetic information”
This is true for the core mechanisms underlying polarity and morphogenesis that are still present in multicellular organisms
Summary
THE COMPLEX ARCHITECTURE OF A SINGLE CELL ORGANISMCiliates are a large and diverse group of unicellular eukaryotes that present a variety of shapes and sizes. We intend to give an overview of the relationship between cilia, BBs and associated structures, and other prominent MTs based complex structures/organelles and the establishment of the cortical pattern and local and global polarities of the ciliate cell.
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