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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Apr 13.
Published in final edited form as: Science. 2012 Sep 7;337(6099):1186–1189. doi: 10.1126/science.1223539

Figure 3.

Figure 3

Illustration of the balance-point model of flagellar length control. (A) IFT particles (green) associated with the flagellar basal body bind precursor molecules from cytoplasmic pool (red) and are injected into the flagellum where they travel to the distal tip to deliver precursor for flagellar assembly. Flagella assembly rate depends on the rate of anterograde IFT, and the disassembly rate is constant. A length sensor may act at the flagellar tip or base or both, and it can affect gene regulation & precursor synthesis, injection of IFT, or assembly or disassembly rates to create feedback loop for length control. (B) Assuming a constant IFT speed, v, the delivery frequency of IFT particles, f, will vary inversely with flagellum length, L. (C) In the balance-point model, flagellar length reaches a steady state where the assembly rate (blue) and disassembly rate (orange) curves intersect.