Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 28, 2026

Reactivation of Demembranated Cell Models in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii
Published on: May 6, 2022
Tetrahymena as a model organism for cilia research
Siddhartha Chakraborty1, Khanh Huy Bui1
1Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, McGill University, 3640 University Street, Montreal, QC H3A 0C7, Canada; Centre for Structural Biology Research, McGill University, 3649 Promenade Sir William Osler, Montreal, QC H3G 0B1, Canada.
None:
Cilia are evolutionarily conserved organelles essential for motility and signaling, and their dysfunction underlies a wide spectrum of human diseases. The ciliate Tetrahymena is a powerful model organism for dissecting ciliary biology due to its abundance of motile cilia, genetic tractability, and suitability for biochemical and structural analyses. This review highlights the biological and experimental advantages of Tetrahymena and summarizes key insights it has provided into ciliary structure and function. Studies in Tetrahymena have elucidated the organization of the axoneme and doublet microtubules, the architecture and roles of microtubule inner proteins, and the regulatory networks formed by nexin-dynein regulatory complex, radial spokes, the central pair, and intraflagellar transport machinery. In addition, work in this system has been instrumental in defining post-translational modifications of tubulin and their functional consequences. Beyond the axoneme, we discuss advances in understanding basal body organization, structure and assembly. Collectively, these contributions establish Tetrahymena as a foundational model for cilia research.
Related Concept Videos
Mechanism of Ciliary Motion
The cilia are made up of microtubules in a 9+2 arrangement, with nine microtubule doublet ring bundles, surrounding a pair of central singlet microtubule bundles. The doublet microtubule bundles are...
Microtubules in Cell Motility
Microtubules in Signaling
Diversity of Protists II

