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Polycystin-2 (Pkd2), Eccentric (Xnta), And Meckelin (Mks3) In The Ciliated Model Organism Paramecium Tetraurelia, Megan Smith Valentine

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Paramecium tetraurelia is a ciliated single cell used as a model organism for the study of ciliopathies. Ciliopathies are mammalian diseases involving the dysfunction of cilia, including cilia maintenance, construction, and signaling. P. tetraurelia and its cilia provides an excellent non-canonical system for the investigation and elucidation of proteins important for the structure, maintenance and function of cilia and ciliary beating. We utilize features of this cell such as its 1000's of cilia and highly organized and patterned cell surface to observe changes in swimming behavior or disruptions in the ordered cell surface which are not feasible in mammalian cells. …