Cilia and flagella revealed: from flagellar assembly in Chlamydomonas to human obesity disorders.

The recent identification in Chlamydomonas of the intraflagellar transport machinery that assembles cilia and flagella has triggered a renaissance of interest in these organelles that transcends studies on their well-characterized ability to move. New studies on several fronts have revealed that the machinery for flagellar assembly/disassembly is regulated by homologs of mitotic proteins, that cilia play essential roles in sensory transduction, and that mutations in cilia/basal body proteins are responsible for cilia-related human disorders from polycystic kidney disease to a syndrome associated with obesity, hypertension, and diabetes.