The role of the flagellar transition region: inferences from the analysis of a Chlamydomonas mutant with defective transition region structures

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Thin-section electron microscopy of the Chlamydomonas reinhardtii mutant vfl-2 revealed striking defects in the transition region between basal body and flagellum. In place of the highly organized transition cylinders and stellate fibers characteristic of wild type, variable quantities of poorly organized electron-dense material were present. In many cases the transition region was penetrated by central pair microtubules that passed from the axoneme into the basal body. On the basis of these observations we propose that an important function of the structures present in the normal transition region is to physically exclude the central pair microtubules from the basal body. The transition region is the site of flagellar autotomy – the process by which doublet microtubules are severed and flagella are released from the cell. It has been claimed that autotomy is caused by contraction of the centrin-containing stellate fibers, resulting in the mechanical severing of the doublet microtubules and a concomitant reduction of the diameter of the axoneme adjacent to the abscission point. Our observations do not support this claim in that vfl-2 cells, which lack organized stellate fibers, display effective autotomy unaccompanied by detectable narrowing of the axoneme.