Ref ID : 4287
Jonathan W. Jarvik, Frederick D. Reinhart, Michael R. Kuchka, and Sally A. Adler; Altered Flagellar Size-Control in shf-1 Short-Flagella Mutants of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. J.Protozool. 31(2):199-204, 1984
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Two allelic Mendelian mutations which confer a short flagella phenotype were used to explore flagellar size control in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. When mutant/wild type quadriflagellate dikaryon cells were constructed, their two short flagella rapidly grew out to near wild type length. The kinetics of elongation suggest that the flagellar assembly process is not intrinsically self-limiting as a number of otherwise attractive models for size control require. Instead, we suggest that there exists a cellular machinery dedicated to flagellar size control and that the short-flagella mutations alter the machinery in some as yet unknown way. One of the mutants shows temperature-sensitive flagellar assembly, and both are flagellaless in acetate media. Genetic analysis indicates that the temperature-sensitive, acetate-sensitive, and short-flagella phenotypes have a common genetic basis. The responsible gene has been named shf-1, and is has been mapped to chromosome VI, approximately 5 map units from the centromere.