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Concept
Centriole
Summary
In cell biology a centriole is a cylindrical organelle composed mainly of a protein called tubulin. Centrioles are found in most eukaryotic cells, but are not present in conifers (Pinophyta), flowering plants (angiosperms) and most fungi, and are only present in the male gametes of charophytes, bryophytes, seedless vascular plants, cycads, and Ginkgo. A bound pair of centrioles, surrounded by a highly ordered mass of dense material, called the pericentriolar material (PCM), makes up a structure called a centrosome.
Centrioles are typically made up of nine sets of short microtubule triplets, arranged in a cylinder. Deviations from this structure include crabs and Drosophila melanogaster embryos, with nine doublets, and Caenorhabditis elegans sperm cells and early embryos, with nine singlets. Additional proteins include centrin, cenexin and tektin.
The main function of centrioles is to produce cilia during interphase and the aster and the spindle during cell division.
The centrosome was discovered jointly by Walther Flemming in 1875 and Edouard Van Beneden in 1876.Edouard Van Beneden made the first observation of centrosomes as composed of two orthogonal centrioles in 1883. Theodor Boveri introduced the term "centrosome" in 1888 and the term "centriole" in 1895. The basal body was named by Theodor Wilhelm Engelmann in 1880. The pattern of centriole duplication was first worked out independently by Étienne de Harven and Joseph G. Gall c. 1950.
Centrioles are involved in the organization of the mitotic spindle and in the completion of cytokinesis. Centrioles were previously thought to be required for the formation of a mitotic spindle in animal cells. However, more recent experiments have demonstrated that cells whose centrioles have been removed via laser ablation can still progress through the G1 stage of interphase before centrioles can be synthesized later in a de novo fashion. Additionally, mutant flies lacking centrioles develop normally, although the adult flies' cells lack flagella and cilia and as a result, they die shortly after birth.
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