纤毛是一种突出于细胞表面的发状细胞器，在细胞中发挥重要的“感知”和“运动”的功能，其结构和功能异常会导致多种遗传疾病。纤毛是一个相对封闭的细胞器，其转接区形成屏障将纤毛区与胞质区隔开。目前领域中普遍认为，维持纤毛结构和功能所需的蛋白质均在胞体内合成，然后经由鞭毛内运输这一纤毛特有的运输系统运入纤毛。我们在前期的研究中发现运动纤毛中存在核糖体、翻译起始蛋白质复合物以及新生肽段的合成，说明在纤毛中存在原位的蛋白质翻译。本项目拟在此基础上，深入研究并发现需在纤毛内翻译的mRNA和将这些mRNA特异性定位到纤毛中的RNA结合蛋白，结合基因敲低、过表达和纤毛运动的成像和分析等细胞和分子生物学方法，揭示这种纤毛内原位蛋白质翻译的生理功能和分子调节机理。

Cilia are the microtubule-based hair-like organelles protruding from the surface of most of eukaryotic cells and are essential for sensing the environmental signals or removing materials from cell surface. Their dysfunctions cause a serial of genetic disorders. The ciliary compartment is separated by the transition zone from the plasmid membrane and cell body. It is believed that all the proteins for the structure and function are transported by the IFT machinery. In our previous studies, we find that the components of the ribosome and eIF (eukaryotic Initiation Factor) complex localize at the cilia. Furthermore, the newly synthesized proteins are also observed by using the puromycin-based protein labelling. These results suggest the existence of mRNA local translation in the cilia. In this proposal, we will screen for the cilia localized mRNAs and RNA-binding proteins and explore their function in cilia structure and cilia function. We will uncover the function and the underlying molecular mechanism of the ciliary local translation.