Biological complexity: making cilia and their functions (Introduction)

by David Turell , Wednesday, April 20, 2022, 15:02 (736 days ago) @ David Turell

Highly dsigned complexity:

https://phys.org/news/2022-04-insights-cilia.html

"Researchers from the group of Patrick Matthias and the FMI Structural Biology platform determined the structure, at near atomic resolution, of a protein complex that plays an essential role in the assembly of cilia—and causes ciliopathies when it is mutated.

"Cilia are hair-like structures that extend from the surface of almost all cell types of the human body. In addition to being "motors" that enable cell propulsion and fluid movement, cilia act as cellular antennae to sense environmental cues, for example during development, and are essential for passing on signals.

***

"This complex event is under strict regulation in space and time and involves dozens of proteins. Three proteins called CPLANE proteins play a particularly important role in governing ciliogenesis, but little is known about them.

"Gerasimos Langousis, postdoc in the lab of Patrick Matthias, and colleagues from the FMI Structural Biology platform used cryogenic-Electron Microscopy (cryo-EM) to study CPLANE. They showed that the three proteins assemble to form a complex they called the CPLANE complex. They determined the structure—at near-atomic resolution—of the human and the mouse complex bound to a small Rab GTPase, an enzyme that is essential for regulating cellular activity. They also studied how the complex binds to phospholipids, the key components of cell membranes (where the cilia are anchored), and what may go wrong in ciliopathies. They could demonstrate that a ciliopathy CPLANE mutant protein exhibits altered phospholipid binding. (my bold)

"These results illuminate how the CPLANE complex orchestrates lipid binding and Rab signaling. The study, published in Science Advances, provides critical structural and functional insights into the enigmatic process of ciliogenesis as well as new molecular rationales for ciliopathies."

Comment: Again, the high degree of complexity demand a designing mind at work. The bold emphasizes the importance of enzymes, giant molecules required to make living biochemistry work. Each enzyme requires design.