AsianScientist (Nov. 26, 2014) – Researchers led by Professor Masahide Kikkawa at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Medicine have discovered that a protein complex that works as a nanometer-sized molecular ruler in the cell. Their results have been published in Science.
Cilia are thin, hair-like organelles found on cells in the trachea, sperm, oviduct and brain. One of their functions in the body is to generate the flow of fluids by beating motions, driven by a motor protein called dyneins. Dyneins are regularly arranged inside cilia, spaced apart by exactly 96 nanometers.
In this study, Assistant Professors Toshiyuki Oda and Haruaki Yanagisawa in Professor Kikkawa’s lab wanted to find out how cells measure lengths with such nanometer-scale precision. They used cryo-electron tomography, which can visualize cell ultrastructures without staining, and discovered that the FAP59/FAP172 complex works as a 96-nm long “nano-molecular ruler”. The complex arranges dyneins with 96-nm repeat and enables coordinated motion of the motor complex.
Since mutations in this nano-molecular ruler are found among congenital so-called “ciliary diseases,” this research will contribute to research into infertility, respiratory disease, hydrocephalus and other cilia-related diseases. The discovery is also expected to be of relevance to the design of complex nanomachines.
The article can be found at: Oda et al. (2014) A Molecular Ruler Determines the Repeat Length in Eukaryotic Cilia and Flagella.
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Source: University of Tokyo.
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