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10-tet650128-4

Fig. 10: Ciliature - cilium and basal body in longitudinal section

A cilium (c) is a motile organelle that arises from a basal body (bb) (kinetosome) located in the cell’s cortex. Most basal bodies or their homologs, centrioles, from protists to man are composed of 9 triplet fibers made of tubulin. The cilium is composed of 9 doublet fibers that are extensions of the triplets. There are two singlet fibers in the center of the cilium which are not present in the basal body. At least one of these singlets arises from an electron opaque body, the axosome (ax), at the proximal end of the cilium’s core. A band of postciliary microtubules (pc mt) passes posteriorly from the proximal end of the basal body and arcs toward the epiplasm (ep) that lies under the alveolus (al). EM taken on 1/28/65 by R. Allen with RCA EMU3F TEM. Neg. 16,000X. Bar = 0.5µm. Published in J. Protozool. 14:553-565, 1967.
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