Figure - PMC

Skip to main content

An official website of the United States government

Here's how you know

Here's how you know

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

View full-text article in PMC

. 2015 Sep;138:32–41. doi: 10.1016/j.exer.2015.06.007

Search in PMC
Search in PubMed
View in NLM Catalog
Add to search

© 2015 The Authors

This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

PMC Copyright notice

Fig. 3 — The Photoreceptor connecting cilium. A modified sensory cilium, comprising the axoneme, connecting cilium (CC) and basal bodies (BB), links the inner and outer segment in vertebrate photoreceptors. (a) Microtubule transport facilitates Rhodopsin Transport Carrier (RTC) delivery to the pericilliary membrane complex (green dotted line in (b), at the base of the BBs, prior to movement into the CC. The BBs co-ordinate microtubule assembly whilst the non-motile axoneme (comprising nine microtubule doublets) acts as a backbone and facilitates intra-flagellar transport (IFT) up and down the CC. (c) The CC serves to compartmentalise the photosensitive pigment rhodopsin into stacks of discs that fill the outer segment. The CC is therefore crucial for maintenance and survival of the photoreceptor. The diagram was modified from Maerker et al. (2008).