PEG had surrounded the microtubules, forcing them to gather together into bundles. They were now behaving like cilia, the hair-like structures that extend from the surface of cells. The whip-like ...

The so-called “9 + 2” fibres (microtubules) are one of the chief ultrastructures in both flagella and cilia, and can be isolated with minimum contamination of other components 1,2.

About halfway through, the microtubules wind around each other, producing a directionality that was consistent across all cilia analyzed. Its effect on cilia function remains unclear, Hughes noted. By ...

Alternatively, the microtubules within cilia might give rise to asymmetrical movements and fluid flows. Cilia are projections from the cell surface that are supported by microtubules.” ...

And the researchers offer a possible reason why: Microtubules support the structure and movement of cilia, hair-like organelles sticking out of cells that can direct the flow of surrounding fluid.

The organelle is membrane-bound and contains multiple microtubules running along its length. Whereas primary cilia have relatively little additional structure, motile cilia have both a central ...

Motile cilia are composed of stable populations of microtubules called doublet microtubules. There is a large subset of proteins that localize on the inside of these microtubules that we hypothesize ...