Flagella and Cilia John Kim Jonathan Timothy Adi

What are Flagella and Cilia? Flagella and Cilia are the locomotion appendages of unicellular Eukaryotes. Basically they are the limbs of cells!

They can act like legs, moving from place to place. FlagellaCilia

They can also act like hands, when they are part of an immotile tissue.

How to differentiate between Cilia and Flagella?

Cilia are large in numbers per cell Flagella are few in numbers per cell Only 2 of us? No Banana? :(

Cilia move like an oar, there are power and recovery strokes Flagella move continuously like a fish tail

Immotile Cilium can also act as an Antenna. These Cilia are crucial to brain function and embryonic development.

Structure of Cilia and Flagella They are made up of 2 different parts. The motile Cilium, upper part; and the basal body, the lower half. Cilium Basal body

Structure of Cilia and Flagella The cross section shows microtubules arranged in “9+2” in the upper half and “9+0” in basal body. This comprises one of the “9” outer triplets in a basal body This makes up the “0”. Thus forming “9+0”.

Structure of Cilia and Flagella In between these outer doublets exists Dynein proteins. They allow movements by changing the shape of the protein using ATP.

*Phew* glad that’s over with…

Thanks, that is all.

References (Background) biology.unm.edu (Giardia, [Flagella]) news.discovery.com (Sperm, [Flagella]) biology.unm.edu news.discovery.com currentsinbiology.tumblr.comcurrentsinbiology.tumblr.com (Cilia1) academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu (Cilia2) (Cilia in Trachea) (Body Surfing) (Hands Up) (Rocker) villains.wikia.com (Minions from Despicable Me) (2 Minions from Despicable Me) (Jelly Fish) (Cute Fish) (Sheep with Alpacas) www5.pbrc.hawaii.edu (Longitudinal Section of Cilium) scienceblogs.com (Textbook Pic) commons.wikimedia.org (Cross Section of Cilia) georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov (President Bush Thumbs up) (President Bush Puffing) academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu villains.wikia.com www5.pbrc.hawaii.edu scienceblogs.com commons.wikimedia.org georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov