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A ciliopathy is a genetic disorder of the cellular cilia or the cilia anchoring structures, the basal bodies,[1] or of ciliary function.[2]
Although ciliopathies are usually considered to involve proteins that localize to motile and/or immotile (primary) cilia or centrosomes, it is possible for ciliopathies to be associated with proteins such as XPNPEP3, which localizes to mitochondria but is believed to affect ciliary function through proteolytic cleavage of ciliary proteins.[3]
Significant advances in understanding the importance of cilia were made beginning in the mid-1990s. However, the physiological role that this organelle plays in most tissues remains elusive. Additional studies of how ciliary dysfunction can lead to such severe disease and developmental pathologies is a subject of current research.[4]
Although non-motile or primary cilia were first described in 1898, they were largely ignored by biologists. But microscopists continued to document their presence in the cells of most vertebrate organisms. The primary cilium was long considered--with few exceptions--to be a largely useless evolutionary vestige, a
In organisms of normal health, cilia are critical for:
A wide variety of symptoms are potential clinical features of ciliopathy.
"The phenotypic parameters that define a ciliopathy may be used to both recognize the cellular basis of a number of genetic disorders and to facilitate the diagnosis and treatment of some diseases of unknown etiology".[8]
A particular phenotype can overlap "considerably with several conditions (ciliopathies) in which primary cilia are also implicated in pathogenicity. One emerging aspect is the wide spectrum of ciliopathy gene mutations found within different diseases."[11]
"Just as different genes can contribute to similar diseases, so the same genes and families of genes can play a part in a range of different diseases." For example, in just two of the diseases caused by malfunctioning cilia, Meckel-Gruber syndrome and Bardet-Biedl syndrome, patients who carry mutations in genes associated with both diseases "have unique symptoms that are not seen in either condition alone." The genes linked to the two different conditions "interact with each other during development." Systems biologists are endeavoring to define functional modules containing multiple genes and then look at disorders whose phenotypes fit into such modules.[10]
Signal transduction pathways involved include the Hedgehog signaling pathway and the Wnt signaling pathway.[9]
In addition to this sensory role mediating specific signaling cues, cilia play "a secretory role in which a soluble protein is released to have an effect downstream of the fluid flow" in epithelial cells, and can of course mediate fluid flow directly in the case of motile cilia.[1] Primary cilia in the retina play a role in transferring nourishment to the non-vascularized rod and cone cells from the vascularized cells several micrometres behind the surface of the retina.
"In effect, the [motile cilium] is a nanomachine composed of perhaps over 600 proteins in molecular complexes, many of which also function independently as nanomachines." Cilia "function as mechano- or chemosensors and as a cellular global positioning system to detect changes in the surrounding environment." For example, ciliary signaling plays a role in the initiation of cellular replacement after cell damage.[6]
Cilia have recently been implicated in a wide variety of human genetic diseases by "the discovery that numerous proteins involved in mammalian disease localize to the basal bodies and cilia." For example, in just a single area of human disease physiology, cystic renal disease, cilia-related genes and proteins have been identified to have causal effect in polycystic kidney disease, nephronophthisis, Senior-Loken syndrome type 5, orofaciodigital syndrome type 1 and Bardet-Biedl syndrome.[4]
Recent advances in mammalian genetic research have facilitated the elucidation of a molecular basis for a number of dysfunctional mechanisms in both motile and primary cilia structures of the cell.[7] "Numerous critical developmental signaling pathways" essential to cellular development have been discovered. These are principally but not exclusively found in the non-motile or primary cilia. A number of common observable characteristics of mammalian genetic disorders and diseases are caused by ciliary dysgenesis and dysfunction. Once identified, these characteristics thus describe a set of hallmarks of a ciliopathy.[8]
[6] that coordinate a large number of cellular signaling pathways, sometimes coupling the signaling to ciliary motility or alternatively to cell division and differentiation."antennae. Cilia may thus be "viewed as sensory cellular thermosensation, and mechanosensation, chemosensation. These primary cilia play important roles in primary cilia with ciliated cells are eukaryotic mammalian Many [5]
Cancer, Cytoskeleton, Mitosis, Evolution, Cell nucleus
Skin, Endothelium, Cilium, Transitional epithelium, Basement membrane
Urinary system, Urinary bladder, Urine, Liver, Nervous system
Evolution, Sweden, Richard Dawkins, Gene, Morphogenesis
Ciliopathy, Gene, %s%s, Pregnancy, Mks1
Long QT syndrome, Mutation, Cystic fibrosis, Ciliopathy, Brugada syndrome
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, Centrosome, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Ciliopathy, Nemaline myopathy
Ciliopathy, Mitosis, /anelles Of Cells And Are Involved In Numerous Activities Such As