Many motile and sensory functions of cilia and flagella depend on the precise localization of transmembrane proteins within the ciliary membrane. R...

The trafficking, docking, and fusion of membrane vesicles at the mother centriole (MC) are important for primary cilium construction. Here, we determined the three-dimensional (3D) membrane ultrastructures, and associated proteins, involved in this primary cilium assembly mechanism upstream of axoneme growth. Our work suggests that the enlargement of small vesicles docked to the MC is a key trigger for ciliogenesis progression, a process requiring the MC distal appendage protein CEP164. These vesicles appear to fuse to form tubular C-shaped intermediates and an unprecedented toroidal membrane intermediate. The formation of these previously uncharacterized tubular membrane ciliogenesis intermediates is orchestrated by the membrane trafficking regulators EHD1 and RAB8, and is associated with the IFT-B complex protein IFT88. Remarkably, we show that EHD1, through its membrane tubulation function, regulates ciliogenesis progression by directly promoting CP110/CEP97 removal from the MC cap.

Signaling receptors can exit cilia either by retrieval back into the cell or by secretion in extracellular vesicles (EVs), a process known as ectocytosis. The mechanisms that govern ectocytosis remain...

Primary cilia are microtubule-based organelles that mediate cellular responses to environmental cues. Although cilia disassemble and reassemble upon cell cycle entry and exit, respectively, in dividin...

The ciliary transition zone gates bidirectional protein trafficking to maintain the specialized ciliary proteome using microtubule doublets as a scaffold. While ciliary axonemal doublets are well-char...

In situ proteomics and expansion microscopy reveal nanoscale organization of postsynaptic proteins on neuronal cilia.

Proper forebrain development relies on precise spatial and temporal control of early neural stem cell (NSC) proliferation and later neurogenesis. Brai…

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Join us for the annual in-person meeting of the UK Cilia & Centrosomal Network meeting, which for 2026 will be at the University of Leeds!

Photoreceptors are neurons in the retina that are responsible for detecting light. We identified pathogenic DNA variants in SAXO6 in individuals with progressive blindness and discovered that SAXO6 is...

The centriole duplication cycle must be tightly controlled and coordinated with the chromosome cycle. Aberrations in centriole biogenesis can cause developmental disorders, ciliopathies and cancer, ye...

The emergence of a chemical system capable of self-replication and evolution is a critical event in the origin of life. RNA polymerase ribozymes can replicate RNA, but their large size and structural ...