Biological invasions

Where do basal bodies come from? The basal body is considered to be a self-replicating organelle. In a process that is not yet completely understood, the daughter basal body is assembled adjacent and orthogonal to the mother organelle. Although this was long speculated to be a templated assembly process, it is likely that the mother basal body acts as the site where components required for assembly of a new organelle are gathered. In addition, two other variations of basal-body biogenesis have been observed. First, basal bodies can be assembled using a de novo pathway that does not require a mother organelle. Second, centrioles can migrate from the nucleus to the plasma membrane and assemble a cilium, thereby becoming a basal body