Abstract
Objective The role of Intraflagellar transport (IFT) in the construction of cilia and flagella is well established in numerous species. In contrast, its involvement in flagellum maintenance has only been shown in Chlamydomonas. Here, the protist Trypanosoma brucei was used as a model to investigate the role of IFT in flagellum maintenance. This organism has the advantage to maintain the existing flagellum whilst assembling the new one during the cell cycle. Knocking down the expression of any IFT protein inhibits flagellum formation in trypanosomes. Nevertheless, 25% of the cells still possess a flagellum of variable length. It was initially proposed that this was a consequence of RNAi that targets mRNA and not protein, hence IFT would still be active in these flagella.
Highlights
In both cases, absence of active Intraflagellar transport (IFT) is not accompanied by flagellum shortening meaning that IFT is not necessary for flagellum length maintenance
Proteomic comparison of flagella is in progress and suggests modification of the flagellum content in the absence of active IFT
New flagella of intermediate length are still assembled at early time points of RNAi but IFT trains are less frequent and appear smaller in the IFT88RNAi strain
Summary
From Cilia 2014 - Second International Conference Paris, France. Objective The role of Intraflagellar transport (IFT) in the construction of cilia and flagella is well established in numerous species. Its involvement in flagellum maintenance has only been shown in Chlamydomonas. The protist Trypanosoma brucei was used as a model to investigate the role of IFT in flagellum maintenance.
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