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Cytoskeleton

Breaking the diffusion barrier

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology volume 11, pages 542–543 (2010)Cite this article

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a septin diffusion barrier at the cilium base provides one way to keep cilia intact.

Membrane proteins are thought to be targeted to cilia by both trafficking mechanisms and intraflagellar transport, but it has been unclear how they are retained here. Hu et al. set out to characterize the mechanisms regulating the mobility of membrane proteins in cilia. They first assessed the mobility of four membrane proteins using fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) analysis and found that although membrane proteins show dynamic movement within the cilium, they do not move beyond the boundary of the cilium base. This led the authors to speculate that there must be a diffusion barrier at the base of cilia that prevents the escape of membrane proteins.

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References

ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Hu, Q. et al. A septin diffusion barrier at the base of the primary cilium maintains ciliary membrane protein distribution. Science 27 Jun 2010 (doi:10.1126/science.1191054)

FURTHER READING

  1. Goetz, S.C. & Anderson, K.V. The primary cilium: a signalling centre during vertebrate development. Nature Rev. Genet. 11, 331–344 (2010)

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  1. Alison Schuldt
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Schuldt, A. Breaking the diffusion barrier. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 11, 542–543 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrm2945

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrm2945

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