title: The roles of evolutionarily conserved functional modules in cilia-related trafficking.
abstract: Cilia are present across most eukaryotic phyla and have diverse sensory and motility roles in animal physiology, cell signalling and development. Their biogenesis and maintenance depend on vesicular and intraciliary (intraflagellar) trafficking pathways that share conserved structural and functional modules. The functional units of the interconnected pathways, which include proteins involved in membrane coating as well as small GTPases and their accessory factors, were first experimentally associated with canonical vesicular trafficking. These components are, however, ancient, having been co-opted by the ancestral eukaryote to establish the ciliary organelle, and their study can inform us about ciliary biology in higher organisms.
authors.affiliation: Margaret M. Dyson Vision Research Institute, Department of Ophthalmology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, 1300 York Avenue, New York, New York 10065, USA.
authors.forename: Ching-Hwa
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Sung
authors.forename: Michel R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Leroux
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000378:metabolism; D002502:Centrioles / Q000502:physiology; D002923:Cilia / Q000502:physiology*; D011992:Endosomes / Q000378:metabolism; D005407:Flagella / Q000378:metabolism; D006056:Golgi Apparatus / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D053858:Metabolic Networks and Pathways; D021381:Protein Transport; D022161:Transport Vesicles / Q000378:metabolism