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Updated: Aug 29, 2026

Mapping Absolute DNA Density in Cell Nuclei using Single-molecule Localization Microscopy
Published on: November 11, 2025
Basal bodies and DNA
1Department of Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA.
Abstract:
The possibility that basal bodies/centrioles contain nucleic acid has been a controversial topic in cell biology for several decades. These structures are conservatively replicated, are segregated at mitosis, and play a prominent role in cytoskeletal organization; thus, some have chosen to view centrioles as autonomous, self-replicating entities, and have searched for centriole-associated DNA. Two years ago, a report suggested that a chromosome defined by a specific linkage group is located within each basal body of the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas. Several recent investigations have presented new data that force a re-evaluation of that conclusion.
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