ATP Production in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii Flagella by Glycolytic Enzymes

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Eukaryotic cilia and flagella are long, thin organelles, and diffusion from the cytoplasm may not be able to support the high ATP concentrations needed for dynein motor activity. We discovered enzyme activities in the Chlamydomonas reinhardtii flagellum that catalyze three steps of the lower half of glycolysis (phosphoglycerate mutase, enolase, and pyruvate kinase). These enzymes can generate one ATP molecule for every substrate molecule consumed. Flagellar fractionation shows that enolase is at least partially associated with the axoneme, whereas phosphoglycerate mutase and pyruvate kinase primarily reside in the detergent-soluble (membrane + matrix) compartments. We further show that axonemal enolase is a subunit of the CPC1 central pair complex and that reduced flagellar enolase levels in the cpc1 mutant correlate with the reduced flagellar ATP concentrations and reduced in vivo beat frequencies reported previously in the cpc1 strain. We conclude that in situ ATP synthesis throughout the flagellar compartment is essential for normal flagellar motility.
Original languageEnglish
JournalMolecular Biology of the Cell
Volume16
Issue number10
Pages (from-to)4509-18
Number of pages9
ISSN1059-1524
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2005

Bibliographical note

Keywords: Adenosine Triphosphate; Amino Acid Sequence; Animals; Chlamydomonas reinhardtii; Cilia; Flagella; Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; Molecular Sequence Data; Phosphoglycerate Mutase; Phosphopyruvate Hydratase; Protein Subunits; Pyruvate Kinase

ID: 2830673