Basal body

The basal body is where the primary cilium is mounted to the cell body. It contains the mother centriole, from where the primary cilium's core skeleton, the axoneme, emerges, and many other proteins involved in ciliogenesis, the ciliary protein transport, and ciliary regulation. Transition fibers mount the basal body to the plasma membrane, holding the cilium in place. Right between basal body and primary cilium lies the transition zone, a sieve like structure that limits the entry and exit of proteins, molecules, and lipids into and out of the cilium.

Immunofluorescent staining

The basal body can be seen as one or two spots, depending on the angle in which the basal body lies to the microscope, that are next to the primary cilium. Since the basal body contains the mother centriole it is also localized in the center of the microtubule cytoskeleton. Many proteins localizing to the basal body may not appear in the center of the basal body but as spots next to the basal body or around the basal body.

Read more about the proteome of basal bodies as a substructure of the primary cilium.

CEP350

CEP350 is a centrosome-associated protein and thus, localizes to the basal body.

Basal body localizationBasal body localizationBoth centrioles visible
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Staining of CEP350 in hTERT-RPE1 (serum starved) ( HPA028357 )