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CILIARY MECHANISMS

A look under the hood of the machine that makes cilia beat

The central apparatus regulates the beating of motile cilia. High-resolution structures of the almost complete central apparatus are now reported in two separate studies, shedding light on the mechanism of ciliary beating and marking a new era in our molecular understanding of cilia architecture and function.

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Fig. 1: The central apparatus of motile cilia.

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Acknowledgements

A.R.-M. is supported by the intramural programs of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) and National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI).

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Correspondence to Elena A. Zehr or Antonina Roll-Mecak.

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Zehr, E.A., Roll-Mecak, A. A look under the hood of the machine that makes cilia beat. Nat Struct Mol Biol 29, 416–418 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41594-022-00778-8

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