PUBLICATION
Ciliary length regulation by intraflagellar transport in zebrafish
- Authors
- Sun, Y., Chen, Z., Jin, M., Xie, H., Zhao, C.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-241214-7
- Date
- 2024
- Source
- eLIFE 13: (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Zhao, Chengtian
- Keywords
- IFT, cell biology, cilia, developmental biology, zebrafish
- MeSH Terms
-
- Biological Transport
- Zebrafish*/embryology
- Zebrafish Proteins/genetics
- Zebrafish Proteins/metabolism
- Animals
- Cilia*/metabolism
- Animals, Genetically Modified*
- Flagella/metabolism
- PubMed
- 39671305 Full text @ Elife
Citation
Sun, Y., Chen, Z., Jin, M., Xie, H., Zhao, C. (2024) Ciliary length regulation by intraflagellar transport in zebrafish. eLIFE. 13:.
Abstract
How cells regulate the size of their organelles remains a fundamental question in cell biology. Cilia, with their simple structure and surface localization, provide an ideal model for investigating organelle size control. However, most studies on cilia length regulation are primarily performed on several single-celled organisms. In contrast, the mechanism of length regulation in cilia across diverse cell types within multicellular organisms remains a mystery. Similar to humans, zebrafish contain diverse types of cilia with variable lengths. Taking advantage of the transparency of zebrafish embryos, we conducted a comprehensive investigation into intraflagellar transport (IFT), an essential process for ciliogenesis. By generating a transgenic line carrying Ift88-GFP transgene, we observed IFT in multiple types of cilia with varying lengths. Remarkably, cilia exhibited variable IFT speeds in different cell types, with longer cilia exhibiting faster IFT speeds. This increased IFT speed in longer cilia is likely not due to changes in common factors that regulate IFT, such as motor selection, BBSome proteins, or tubulin modification. Interestingly, longer cilia in the ear cristae tend to form larger IFT compared to shorter spinal cord cilia. Reducing the size of IFT particles by knocking down Ift88 slowed IFT speed and resulted in the formation of shorter cilia. Our study proposes an intriguing model of cilia length regulation via controlling IFT speed through the modulation of the size of the IFT complex. This discovery may provide further insights into our understanding of how organelle size is regulated in higher vertebrates.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping