Intraflagellar transport complexes
intraflagellar transport complexes
Intraflagellar transport or IFT is a bidirectional motility along axonemal microtubules that is essential for the formation ( ciliogenesis ) and maintenance of most eukaryotic cilia and flagella. It is thought to be required to build all cilia that assemble within a membrane projection from the cell surface. The process of IFT has been best characterized in the biflagellate alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii as well as the sensory cilia of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. It has been suggested based on localization studies that IFT proteins also function outside of cilia.