RESUMO
Cilia, essential motile and sensory organelles, have several compartments: the basal body, transition zone, and the middle and distal axoneme segments. The distal segment accommodates key functions, including cilium assembly and sensory activities. While the middle segment contains doublet microtubules (incomplete B-tubules fused to complete A-tubules), the distal segment contains only A-tubule extensions, and its existence requires coordination of microtubule length at the nanometer scale. We show that three conserved proteins, two of which are mutated in the ciliopathy Joubert syndrome, determine the geometry of the distal segment, by controlling the positions of specific microtubule ends. FAP256/CEP104 promotes A-tubule elongation. CHE-12/Crescerin and ARMC9 act as positive and negative regulators of B-tubule length, respectively. We show that defects in the distal segment dimensions are associated with motile and sensory deficiencies of cilia. Our observations suggest that abnormalities in distal segment organization cause a subset of Joubert syndrome cases.
Assuntos
Proteínas do Domínio Armadillo/metabolismo , Proteínas de Ciclo Celular/metabolismo , Cílios/metabolismo , Microtúbulos/metabolismo , Proteínas de Protozoários/metabolismo , Tetrahymena thermophila/metabolismo , Anormalidades Múltiplas/genética , Anormalidades Múltiplas/metabolismo , Proteínas do Domínio Armadillo/genética , Proteínas de Ciclo Celular/genética , Cerebelo/anormalidades , Cerebelo/metabolismo , Cílios/genética , Anormalidades do Olho/genética , Anormalidades do Olho/metabolismo , Humanos , Doenças Renais Císticas/genética , Doenças Renais Císticas/metabolismo , Microtúbulos/genética , Proteínas de Protozoários/genética , Retina/anormalidades , Retina/metabolismo , Tetrahymena thermophila/genéticaRESUMO
Radial spokes are conserved macromolecular complexes that are essential for ciliary motility. A triplet of three radial spokes, RS1, RS2, and RS3, repeats every 96 nm along the doublet microtubules. Each spoke has a distinct base that docks to the doublet and is linked to different inner dynein arms. Little is known about the assembly and functions of individual radial spokes. A knockout of the conserved ciliary protein FAP206 in the ciliate Tetrahymena resulted in slow cell motility. Cryo-electron tomography showed that in the absence of FAP206, the 96-nm repeats lacked RS2 and dynein c. Occasionally, RS2 assembled but lacked both the front prong of its microtubule base and dynein c, whose tail is attached to the front prong. Overexpressed GFP-FAP206 decorated nonciliary microtubules in vivo. Thus FAP206 is likely part of the front prong and docks RS2 and dynein c to the microtubule.