BBSome, Caenorhabditis elegans'ta ARL13B'ye Bağımlı İki Farklı Silyanın Birlikte Uzamasını Düzenler

Cilia or flagella are interchangeably used to refer to the hair-like organelles extending from the cell surface to communicate with environmental signals or triggers. Cilium, the singular form of cilia, and its components are well-conserved structures throughout evolution and are divided into motile and primary cilium. The primary cilia of different cells are seen to form joint cilia by extending in parallel. For instance, PHA and PHB primary cilia in C. elegans protrude from the ends of the dendrite but extend parallel to one another and intersect in the middle portion of the cilia, reaching the same length. Nevertheless, the molecular mechanisms underlying how parallel cilia get similar lengths remain mysterious. In this thesis, we used C. elagans as a model organism to examine the molecular mechanism associated with the cilia direction. We generated various single, double, and triple mutants to examine PHA and PHB cilia for phenotype and length. We found that a Joubert syndrome protein, ARL13B, is required for determining cilia direction in PHA & PHB cilia and ASE & ASI cilia.