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Eukaryotic flagella and cilia are identical in structure but have different lengths and functions. [9] Prokaryotic fimbriae and pili are smaller, and thinner appendages, with different functions. Cilia are attached to the surface of flagella and are used to swim or move fluid from one region to another. [10]
Bacterial type IV pili are similar in structure to the component proteins of archaella (archaeal flagella), and both are related to the Type II secretion system (T2SS); [15] they are unified by the group of Type IV filament systems. Besides archaella, many archaea produce adhesive type 4 pili, which enable archaeal cells to adhere to different ...
The evolution of flagella is of great interest to biologists because the three known varieties of flagella – (eukaryotic, bacterial, and archaeal) each represent a sophisticated cellular structure that requires the interaction of many different systems.
Bacterial flagella are helical filaments, each with a rotary motor at its base which can turn clockwise or counterclockwise. [16] [17] [18] They provide two of several kinds of bacterial motility. [19] [20] Archaeal flagella are called archaella, and function in much the same way as bacterial flagella
An undulipodium or undulopodium (Greek: "swinging foot"; plural undulipodia), or a 9+2 organelle is a motile filamentous extracellular projection of eukaryotic cells.It is basically synonymous to flagella and cilia which are differing terms for similar molecular structures used on different types of cells, and usually correspond to different waveforms.
Though eukaryotic flagella and motile cilia are ultrastructurally identical, the beating pattern of the two organelles can be different. In the case of flagella, the motion is often planar and wave-like, whereas the motile cilia often perform a more complicated three-dimensional motion with a power and recovery stroke.
Although the movement of archaella and flagella is sometimes described as "whip-like", this is incorrect, as only cilia from Eukaryotes move in this manner. Indeed, even "flagellum" (word derived from Latin meaning "whip") is a misnomer, as bacterial flagella also work as propeller-like structures.
Longitudinal section through the flagella area in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. In the cell apex is the basal body that is the anchoring site for a flagellum. Basal bodies originate from and have a substructure similar to that of centrioles, with nine peripheral microtubule triplets (see structure at bottom center of image).