title: Cryo-electron tomography and 3-D analysis of the intact flagellum in Trypanosoma brucei.
abstract: Trypanosoma brucei is a uni-cellular protist that causes African sleeping sickness. These parasites have a flagellum that is attached to the cell body and is indispensible for its motility. The flagellum consists of a canonical 9+2 axoneme and a paraflagellar rod (PFR), an intricate tripartite, fibrous structure that is connected to the axoneme. In this paper we describe results from cryo-electron tomography of unperturbed flagella. This method revealed novel structures that are likely involved in attaching the flagellum to the cell. We also show the first cryo-electron tomographic images of a basal body in situ, revealing electron dense structures inside its triplet microtubules. Sub-tomogram averaging of the PFR revealed that its distal region is organized as an orthorhombic crystal.
authors.affiliation: The Boulder Laboratory for 3-D Electron Microscopy of Cells, MCD-Biology, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309-0347, USA. hoog@colorado.edu
authors.forename: Johanna L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Höög
authors.forename: Cédric
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bouchet-Marquis
authors.forename: J Richard
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: McIntosh
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hoenger
authors.forename: Keith
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gull
mesh_terms: D020285:Cryoelectron Microscopy / Q000379:methods*; D055032:Electron Microscope Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D005407:Flagella / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D005629:Frozen Sections; D014346:Trypanosoma brucei brucei / Q000648:ultrastructure*