Cilia and flagella are ubiquitous organelles in eukaryotic cells where they perform both sensory and motile functions. Many scientific papers published recently start with this sentence or have it in their introduction: Are scientists losing their creativity? There is another explanation: the plethora of new and exciting data published recently on the biology of cilia and flagella including results on the pivotal role of the primary cilium in development, and their involvement in many diseases, are focusing the attention of an increasing number of laboratories. This status of this research area has been fully confirmed by the success of the recent FASEB summer research conference on the Biology of Cilia and Flagella organized by Joel Rosenbaum (Yale University, USA), George Witman (University of Massachusetts Medical School, USA) and Romano Dallai (University of Siena. Italy) (Fig. 1A,B)and held atVermont Academy (USA) on August 4–9, 2007. This venue saw the active participation of more than 170 scientists from USA, Japan, Europe and Canada (Fig. 1A). The program had 12 sessions with more than 80 speakers, and 2 poster sections with about 60 presentations. Because of his outstanding historical contribution to the field with his studies on male sterility and Kartagener’s Syndrome, the meeting was dedicated to Dr. Bjorn Afzelius (Fig. 1C) (University of Stockholm) who, unfortunately, was unable to attend for health problems. During the opening ceremony Romano Dallai profiled the contributions of Dr. Afzelius based on more than 20 years of their scientific collaboration and friendship. The keynote talk by George Witman also highlighted the contributions made by Bjorn Afzelius towards the identification of axonemal dynein arms as the molecular motors responsible for the microtubular sliding necessary for ciliary and flagellar beating (Afzelius, 1959). Witman emphasized the importance of Afzelius’ discovery of ultrastructural defects in cilia and flagella of patients affected by Kartagener’s Syndrome (Afzelius, 1976). His observations that patients with Situs inversus (Kartagener’s Syndrome) also were sterile were the first to pinpoint the cilium as the cause of sterility, and also to show that normal cilia were required for the development of proper body symmetry; but it was unknown at that time why the ciliary axoneme defects caused these defects in the body symmetry. Witman then reviewed the most important discoveries made recently on cilia and flagella starting with the first description of Intraflagellar Transport made in Rosembaum’s lab (Kozminski et al., 1993), and the observations made at Tokyo in Hirokawa’s lab showing that the cilia in the embryonic node are motile and are necessary for the development of normal left/right asymmetry during embryonic development (Nonaka et al., 1998). Caspary et al. identified in 2007 some 9 + 2 cilia in the embryonic node and, 20 years after the observations by Afzelius, a definitive link was made between ciliary motility and the cellular bases of situs inversus in Kartagener’s syndrome. In the last section of his talk Witman reviewed the studies relating polycystic kidney disease (PKD) in mammals to defects in primary cilia. After this first evidence relating primary cilia with a specific disease, many other papers were published demonstrating a connection between ciliary functions and several other cystic, developmental and metabolic diseases for which the term ciliopathy has been established. It is therefore not surprising that several sessions of the meeting were dedicated to cilia and disease.

Lupetti, P. (2007). Stay tuned! It is an Exciting Era for the Biology of Cilia and Flagella. TISSUE & CELL, 39, 445-455 [10.1016/j.tice.2007.10.002].

Stay tuned! It is an Exciting Era for the Biology of Cilia and Flagella

LUPETTI, PIETRO
2007-01-01

Abstract

Cilia and flagella are ubiquitous organelles in eukaryotic cells where they perform both sensory and motile functions. Many scientific papers published recently start with this sentence or have it in their introduction: Are scientists losing their creativity? There is another explanation: the plethora of new and exciting data published recently on the biology of cilia and flagella including results on the pivotal role of the primary cilium in development, and their involvement in many diseases, are focusing the attention of an increasing number of laboratories. This status of this research area has been fully confirmed by the success of the recent FASEB summer research conference on the Biology of Cilia and Flagella organized by Joel Rosenbaum (Yale University, USA), George Witman (University of Massachusetts Medical School, USA) and Romano Dallai (University of Siena. Italy) (Fig. 1A,B)and held atVermont Academy (USA) on August 4–9, 2007. This venue saw the active participation of more than 170 scientists from USA, Japan, Europe and Canada (Fig. 1A). The program had 12 sessions with more than 80 speakers, and 2 poster sections with about 60 presentations. Because of his outstanding historical contribution to the field with his studies on male sterility and Kartagener’s Syndrome, the meeting was dedicated to Dr. Bjorn Afzelius (Fig. 1C) (University of Stockholm) who, unfortunately, was unable to attend for health problems. During the opening ceremony Romano Dallai profiled the contributions of Dr. Afzelius based on more than 20 years of their scientific collaboration and friendship. The keynote talk by George Witman also highlighted the contributions made by Bjorn Afzelius towards the identification of axonemal dynein arms as the molecular motors responsible for the microtubular sliding necessary for ciliary and flagellar beating (Afzelius, 1959). Witman emphasized the importance of Afzelius’ discovery of ultrastructural defects in cilia and flagella of patients affected by Kartagener’s Syndrome (Afzelius, 1976). His observations that patients with Situs inversus (Kartagener’s Syndrome) also were sterile were the first to pinpoint the cilium as the cause of sterility, and also to show that normal cilia were required for the development of proper body symmetry; but it was unknown at that time why the ciliary axoneme defects caused these defects in the body symmetry. Witman then reviewed the most important discoveries made recently on cilia and flagella starting with the first description of Intraflagellar Transport made in Rosembaum’s lab (Kozminski et al., 1993), and the observations made at Tokyo in Hirokawa’s lab showing that the cilia in the embryonic node are motile and are necessary for the development of normal left/right asymmetry during embryonic development (Nonaka et al., 1998). Caspary et al. identified in 2007 some 9 + 2 cilia in the embryonic node and, 20 years after the observations by Afzelius, a definitive link was made between ciliary motility and the cellular bases of situs inversus in Kartagener’s syndrome. In the last section of his talk Witman reviewed the studies relating polycystic kidney disease (PKD) in mammals to defects in primary cilia. After this first evidence relating primary cilia with a specific disease, many other papers were published demonstrating a connection between ciliary functions and several other cystic, developmental and metabolic diseases for which the term ciliopathy has been established. It is therefore not surprising that several sessions of the meeting were dedicated to cilia and disease.
2007
Lupetti, P. (2007). Stay tuned! It is an Exciting Era for the Biology of Cilia and Flagella. TISSUE & CELL, 39, 445-455 [10.1016/j.tice.2007.10.002].
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11365/10411
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