Flagella and cilia are elaborate cytoskeletal structures conserved from protists to mammals, where they fulfil functions related to motility or sensitivity. Here we demonstrate novel roles for the flagellum in the control of cell size, shape, polarity and division of the protozoan Trypanosoma brucei. To investigate the function of the flagellum, its formation was perturbed by inducible RNA inte...

The attachment of Vibrio alginolyticus to glass surfaces was investigated with special reference to the swimming speed due to the polar flagellum. This bacterium has two types of flagella, i.e., one polar flagellum and numerous lateral flagella. The mutant YM4, which possesses only the polar flagellum, showed much faster attachment than the mutant YM18, which does not possess flagella, indicati...

African trypanosomes, i.e. Trypanosoma brucei and related sub-species, are devastating human and animal pathogens that cause significant human mortality and limit sustained economic development in sub-Saharan Africa. T. brucei is a highly motile protozoan parasite and coordinated motility is central to both disease pathogenesis in the mammalian host and parasite development in the tsetse fly ve...

gamma-tubulin is an essential part of a multiprotein complex that nucleates the minus end of microtubules. Although the function of gamma-tubulin in nucleating cytoplasmic and mitotic microtubules from organizing centers such as the centrosome and spindle pole body is well documented, its role in microtubule nucleation in the eukaryotic flagellum is unclear. Here, we have used Trypanosoma bruce...

Cilia and flagella are conserved eukaryotic organelles important for motility and sensory. The RanGTPase, best known for nucleocytoplasmic transport functions, may also play a role in protein trafficking into the specialized flagellar/ciliary compartments, although the regulatory mechanisms controlling Ran activity at the flagellum remain unclear. The unicellular parasite Trypanosoma brucei con...

Bull sperm extracted with 0.1% Triton X-100 can be reactivated to full motility with 0.33 mM Mg-ATP (sperm models). When motile sperm models are treated with 0.66 mM NiSO4, spontaneous motility is lost. During the transition to motility arrest, the beat becomes progressively more asymmetric, finally arresting at one extreme of the beat cycle. After spontaneous motility has been lost, the flagel...

Spelunconiscus Campos-Filho, Araujo and Taiti, 2014 is a monotypic genus of the family Styloniscidae represented by troglobitic species, castroi 2014, from cave MOC-32, in state Minas Gerais, southeastern Brazil. New representatives this were found three additional caves, which revealed new septemlacuum sp. nov., Taboa Tatuzinhos caves occurrence for type-species Retiro cave. The original diagn...

We propose and discuss a model for flagellar mechanics in Euglena gracilis . show that the peculiar non-planar shapes of its beating flagellum, dubbed 'spinning lasso', arise from mechanical interactions between two inner components, namely, axoneme paraflagellar rod. The spontaneous shape resting rod are incompatible. Thus, complex configurations coupled system emerge as energetically optimal ...

The cilia and flagella of eukaryotic cells function by active bending that produces cell movements and fluid flows in their environment. They contain a common cytoskeleton, known as the axoneme, that is the locus of all the enzymes and mechanical components that are required for production of useful bending. The bending of many flagella, and some cilia, is planar, or at least nearly planar. In ...

Type IV pili (T4P) and flagellum are well known virulence factors of an opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. T4P pili provide twitching motility, adherence to biotic/abiotic surfaces, intercellular association that is essential to biophilm formation, and are implicated in chemotaxis, bacteriophage adsorption and DNA uptake. Flagellum provides swimming/swarming motilities and chemotaxi...