|
|
|
|
A more recent version of this article appeared on April 1, 2002
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Submitted on November 1, 2001
Revised on January 3, 2002
Accepted on January 18, 2002
1 Department of Cell Biology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, 5323 Harry Hines Blvd., Dallas, TX 75390-9039
* Corresponding author. E-mail address: william.snell{at}utsouthwestern.edu.
The assembly and maintenance of eucaryotic flagella and cilia depend on the microtubule motor, kinesin-II. This plus end-directed motor carries intraflagellar transport (IFT) particles from the base to the tip of the organelle, where structural components of the axoneme are assembled. Here we test the idea that kinesin-II also is essential for signal transduction. When mating type plus (mt+) and mating type minus (mt-) gametes of the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas are mixed together, binding interactions between mt+ and mt- flagellar adhesion molecules, the agglutinins, initiate a signaling pathway that leads to increases in intracellular cAMP, gamete activation, and zygote formation. A critical question in Chlamydomonas fertilization has been how agglutinin interactions are coupled to increases in intracellular cAMP. Recently, Piperno et al. (1996. J. Cell Biol.133:371-9), reported that fla10 gametes with a temperature-sensitive defect in FLA10 kinesin-II did not form zygotes at the restrictive temperature (32 °C). We find that while the rates and extents of flagellar adhesion in fla10 gametes at 32 °C are indistinguishable from wild type gametes, the cells do not undergo gamete activation. On the other hand, 32 °C fla10 gametes regulated agglutinin location and underwent gamete fusion when the cells were incubated in dibutyryl cAMP, indicating that their capacity to respond to the cAMP signal was intact. We show that the cellular defect in the 32 °C, fla10 gametes is a failure to undergo increases in cAMP during flagella adhesion. Thus, in addition to being essential for assembly and maintenance of the structural components of flagella, kinesin-II/IFT plays a role in sensory transduction in these organelles.
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
J. C. Hoeng, S. C. Dawson, S. A. House, M. S. Sagolla, J. K. Pham, J. J. Mancuso, J. Lowe, and W. Z. Cande High-Resolution Crystal Structure and In Vivo Function of a Kinesin-2 Homologue in Giardia intestinalis Mol. Biol. Cell, July 1, 2008; 19(7): 3124 - 3137. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
K. Huang, D. R. Diener, A. Mitchell, G. J. Pazour, G. B. Witman, and J. L. Rosenbaum Function and dynamics of PKD2 in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii flagella J. Cell Biol., November 5, 2007; 179(3): 501 - 514. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
Y. Hou, G. J. Pazour, and G. B. Witman A Dynein Light Intermediate Chain, D1bLIC, Is Required for Retrograde Intraflagellar Transport Mol. Biol. Cell, October 1, 2004; 15(10): 4382 - 4394. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
K. Huang, T. Kunkel, and C. F. Beck Localization of the Blue-Light Receptor Phototropin to the Flagella of the Green Alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii Mol. Biol. Cell, August 1, 2004; 15(8): 3605 - 3614. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
Q. Wang and W. J. Snell Flagellar Adhesion between Mating Type Plus and Mating Type Minus Gametes Activates a Flagellar Protein-tyrosine Kinase during Fertilization in Chlamydomonas J. Biol. Chem., August 29, 2003; 278(35): 32936 - 32942. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
J. Pan and W. J. Snell Kinesin II and regulated intraflagellar transport of Chlamydomonas aurora protein kinase J. Cell Sci., June 1, 2003; 116(11): 2179 - 2186. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
D. Watanabe, Y. Saijoh, S. Nonaka, G. Sasaki, Y. Ikawa, T. Yokoyama, and H. Hamada The left-right determinant Inversin is a component of node monocilia and other 9+0 cilia Development, May 1, 2003; 130(9): 1725 - 1734. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||