Length-dependent disassembly maintains four different flagellar lengths in Giardia
- University of California, Davis, United States
- Brandeis University, United States
Abstract
With eight flagella of four different lengths, the parasitic protist Giardia is an ideal model to evaluate flagellar assembly and length regulation. To determine how four different flagellar lengths are maintained, we used live-cell quantitative imaging and mathematical modeling of conserved components of intraflagellar transport (IFT)-mediated assembly and kinesin-13-mediated disassembly in different flagellar pairs. Each axoneme has a long cytoplasmic region extending from the basal body, and transitions to a canonical membrane-bound flagellum at the 'flagellar pore'. We determined that each flagellar pore is the site of IFT accumulation and injection, defining a diffusion barrier functionally analogous to the transition zone. IFT-mediated assembly is length-independent, as train size, speed, and injection frequencies are similar for all flagella. We demonstrate that kinesin-13 localization to the flagellar tips is inversely correlated to flagellar length. Therefore, we propose a model where a length-dependent disassembly mechanism controls multiple flagellar lengths within the same cell.
Data availability
All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting files.
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Author details
Funding
National Institutes of Health (R01AI077571)
- Scott C Dawson
National Institutes of Health (GM0007377)
- Shane G McInally
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Copyright
© 2019, McInally et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Length-dependent disassembly maintains four different flagellar lengths in Giardia
eLife 8:e48694.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.48694
