ROTOKINESIS, A NOVEL PHENOMENON OF CELL LOCOMOTION‐ASSISTED CYTOKINESIS IN THE CILIATE <i>TETRAHYMENA THERMOPHILA</i>

Brown, Jason; Hardin, C. L.; Gaertig, Jacek

doi:10.1006/cbir.1999.0480

Cited by 50 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Hence, the pulling and rotational forces provided by flagellar beating may provide a convenient way to drive the final steps of cell separation which, in trypanosomes, occurs in the absence of any detectable contractile ring. A similar phenomenon, termed rotokinesis, has been observed in Tetrahymena (Brown et al, 1999). Therefore, in addition to its role as a spatial and directional cue for directing cleavage furrow formation, the flagellum plays an active role in cell division in procyclic T. brucei cells.…”

Section: Flagellar Motility and Cytokinesismentioning

confidence: 60%

The flagellum of Trypanosoma brucei: New tricks from an old dog

Ralston

Hill

2008

International Journal for Parasitology

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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. Trypanosoma 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 vector. Since motility is critical for parasite development and pathogenesis, understanding unique aspects of the T. brucei flagellum may uncover novel targets for therapeutic intervention in African sleeping sickness. Moreover, studies of conserved features of the T. brucei flagellum are directly relevant to understanding fundamental aspects of flagellum and cilium function in other eukaryotes, making T. brucei an important model system. The T. brucei flagellum contains a canonical 9 + 2 axoneme, together with additional features that are unique to kinetoplastids and a few closely-related organisms. Until recently, much of our knowledge of the structure and function of the trypanosome flagellum was based on analogy and inference from other organisms. There has been an explosion in functional studies in T. brucei in recent years, revealing conserved as well as novel and unexpected structural and functional features of the flagellum. Most notably, the flagellum has been found to be an essential organelle, with critical roles in parasite motility, morphogenesis, cell division and immune evasion. This review highlights recent discoveries on the T. brucei flagellum.

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Section: Flagellar Motility and Cytokinesismentioning

confidence: 60%

The flagellum of Trypanosoma brucei: New tricks from an old dog

Ralston

Hill

2008

International Journal for Parasitology

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“…As a result, movement of these two flagella, in addition to the twisted motility imposed by the flagellum disposition around the cell body (Hill, 2003), exerts tension on the mid-body and contributes to completion of cell separation. Other modes of movement participate to this process in the ciliate Tetrahymena and in the slime mould Dictyostelium, where the shearing force is provided by complex cilia beating (Brown et al, 1999) and amoeboid movement (Tuxworth et al, 1997), respectively. In all three cases, cells can re-enter the normal cell cycle, progress through mitosis and, therefore, end up multi-nucleated -indicated by the absence of a checkpoint on that final stage of cell division.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conserved and specific functions of axoneme components in trypanosome motility

Branche

Kohl

Toutirais

et al. 2006

Journal of Cell Science

154

261

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The Trypanosoma brucei flagellum is unusual as it is attached along the cell body and contains, in addition to an apparently conventional axoneme, a structure called the paraflagellar rod, which is essential for cell motility. Here, we investigated flagellum behaviour in normal and mutant trypanosome cell lines where expression of genes encoding various axoneme proteins (PF16, PF20, DNAI1, LC2) had been silenced by RNAi. First, we show that the propulsive wave (normally used for forward motility) is abolished in the absence of outer dynein arms, whereas the reverse wave (normally used for changing direction) still occurs. Second, in contrast to Chlamydomonas - but like metazoa, the central pair adopts a fixed orientation during flagellum beating. This orientation becomes highly variable in central-pair- and outer-dynein-arm-mutants. Third, the paraflagellar rod contributes to motility by facilitating three-dimensional wave propagation and controlling cell shape. Fourth, motility is required to complete the last stage of cell division in both insect and bloodstream stages of the parasite. Finally, our study also reveals the conservation of molecular components of the trypanosome flagellum. Coupled to the ease of reverse genetics, it raises the interest of trypanosomes as model organisms to study cilia and flagella.

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“…However, it is also possible that the shaking effect is because of some aspect of the increased aeration during shaking. In addition, it has been reported that Tetrahymena participate in rotokinesis, a mechanism of cell division characterized by coordinated locomotion of daughter cells at the final stage of cytokinesis (Brown et al, 1999). It is possible that a ciliary waveform defect may influence the efficiency of this process and result in slower rates of cell division.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%