Multi-method Analysis of Chlamydomonas Flagellar Motility

—From Electron Microscopy to Cell Biology—

Abstract

Cilia and flagella are elaborate organelles found in a wide range of eukaryotes. The beating motion of flagella is generated by hundreds of axonemal proteins, but functional analyses of individual molecules were insufficient to reveal the complex regulatory mechanism. Chlamydomonas, one species of green algae, is a precious model organism in that various experimental methods such as biochemical, genetical, cell biological and electron microscopic analyses have been established by decades of research. We took advantage of this characteristic of Chlamydomonas and have found the regulatory mechanism for the axonemal motor protein, dynein.