Discussion

Cep164 proteins are essential components of the transitional fibres (or distal appendages) of basal bodies and centrioles. The transition zone docks the mature basal body to the plasma membrane and without it the basal body cannot nucleate a functional flagellum. Cep164 is one of the most conserved genes found in the basal bodies across the evolutionary spectrum and Kinetoplastid flagellates possess three rather diverse orthologues. Using immunofluorescence microscopy and endogenous tagging approaches all three proteins, both C and N terminally tagged versions, localize to the distal end of the mature basal body in a ring around the barrel of the basal body. Two of the Cep164 proteins are found in all mature basal bodies, but the third one is absent from the newly maturing basal body during the cell cycle and the signal appears only after abscission.