Studies on cell motility, membrane fluidity, and kinetosome morphogenesis in flagellate protozoa from termites. 1. To investigate the mechanism of a rotary motor which continually turns one part of a eukaryotic cell, including the plasma membrane, in the same direction relative to the rest of the cell. 2. To use the dramatic exhibition of membrane fluidity at the shear zone of this cell to probe dynamic aspects of membrane organization at the molecular level. 3. To explore the nature of a prokaryotic-eukaryotic symbiosis in which flagellated bacteria attached to the surface of protozoan actually propel the eukaryote. 4. to investigate the mode of origin and biochemistry of a remarkabe accumulation of half a million free kinetosomes discovered in Australian flagellates. Studies on the control of ciliary activity and mechanosensory transduction by cilia in ctenophores. 5. To characterize the nature of the stimulus (electrical or mechanical) that triggers the beating of cililary comb plates, and results in ciliary coordination. 6. To determine the structure of microtubule-membrane linkers in comb plate cilia, and their function in synchronizing ciliary activity within a plate. 7. To analyze the ionic, nervous, and ultrastructural control of ciliary reversal, using the Ca ions minus dependent comb plate reversal system recently discovered in ctenophore larva, and the nervously-controlled unilateral reversal found in adults. 8. To investigate the process of mechanosensory transduction by motile pacemaker cilia in the ctenophore statocyst. To accomplish these objectives we will use a variety of techniques, including high-speed cinemicrography, electron microscopy, freeze-fracture replication, biochemical methods, gel electrophoresis, and electrophysiology.
NIH ExPorter
NIH ExPorter