Silly Cilia!

Awww you're taken aback by my super cute title?? How sweet, how sweet. Give yourself some time to calm down. You ready? Off we go!

As I am hoping you already know, mitosis is the process of cell division that produces two identical daughter cells. So this article talks about the role of cilia proteins during mitosis. Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School have discovered a role for the cilia proteins IFT88, that was previously unknown. Oh hey look, since most of us are aiming to go to medical school, if you go there you can tell them you already know things about them! Lucky you. You're welcome. Anyway, so yes, they discovered a previous unknown role for IFT88. This newly discovered roles suggests that this could be a possible alternative or contributory cause for cilia-related diseases like primary ciliary dyskinesia, and polycystic kidney disease. Here's a nice picture of some actual cilia.

IFT88 is part of a family of transport proteins and cellular machinery that is in charge of moving materials from the cell body to the cilia. It is a slender protrusion responsible for motility and sensory input known for its ability to build cilia. If IFT88 is not present, cilia are either not able to form or defective. Scientists have linked cilia dysfunction to a number of  ciliopathies. IFT88 absence has been linked to polycistic kidney disease (PKD), which is characterized by the presence of multiple cysts in the kidneys. PKD is also believed to be caused by cilia dysfunction in kidney cells.
Stephen J. Doxsey, PhD, professor of molecular medicine and biochemistry & molecular pharmacology and cell biology and lead author of the study, and his colleagues observed that the IFT88 protein is present at the poles of the mitotic spindle. They knew 1FT88 and other proteins were present at the spindle poles, but their functions were unknown. Benedicte Delaval, PhD, found that IFT88 plays a part in transporting materials required for building the spindle poles during cell division. Ergo, the loss of IFT88 protein during mitosis causes there to be a delay in mitotic division and misalignment of the direction and plane of cell division. This of course is not good.
Both cilia and spindle fibers arise from centrosomes, leading Doxsey to hypothesize that there is a deeper, underlying connection between the two. Until more research and test and studies are conducted... the world may never know...